Harry Potter's Epic Discovery
by JohnDeath
Summary: A simple glance in the right direction at the right time changed the life of a lonely young boy, and through him, the fate of a whole world
1. Chapter 1

Here is the first chapter of the new and improved Discovery. Larger and more detailed chapters will follow. Large parts of the original story will be present in this one, but there will be large changes, so even those that have read Discovery will get a few surprises.

**Chapter 1**

Harry was mesmerized at the sight before him. It was difficult to see the TV through the small grate on the door to the cupboard under the stairs he was living in, but the sight before him made him forget the uncomfortable position he was in.

His cousin Dudley, who resembled a round ball more than the eight year old boy he was, had started to watch a new cartoon, something called Naruto. It was one of those new Japanese cartoons that were all the rage at that time, and of course, Dudley nagged his family to let him watch it, despite the fact that his father Vernon didn't like anything strange or foreign.

The sight of the show and the characters it portrayed stayed within Harry's mind from the moment he laid eyes on him. There was something in it that drew his attention, and he often dreamed about the world it showed, and what his life would be like if he lived there, instead of in a dirty old cupboard under the stairs with people who could care less if he died that very moment.

* * *

Unfortunately for Harry, two weeks later, Dudley grew bored with the show and stopped watching it. For Harry, it felt like he had torn his heart out and stomped it into the ground. For the first time in his young life, Harry felt pure hatred in his heart, and the desire to kill his cousin washed over him like a foul tide.

The moment passed quickly, and Harry's emotions shifted to depression. This was just one more thing his so-called family took away from him.

He had lived with the Dursley family for almost seven years now, and in that time, he had known only hate and scorn from them.

He was forced to do the bulk of the chores around the house, even though a small, underfed boy like him could hardly do half of them, and even then, he could only do a handful of them well, which earned him a heap of punishment and belittlement.

* * *

The most used punishment was depriving him of food, which was quite cruel considering he got very little of it to begin with. And now, he was deprived of yet another thing he grew to like, just like two months ago when he found five old Lego blocks. He couldn't really build anything with them, since he didn't have enough, but just putting them together and taking them apart was enough for him.

When his cousin found them, he thought it would be a great idea to smash the blocks to bits while two of his friends held Harry pinned to the ground.

* * *

Feeling really down, Harry was sitting absently in class, paying the teacher only the faintest amount of attention when he heard the two boys behind him whisper to each other.

"Did you catch the new Naruto episode? That was some fight, huh?" Harry's eyes widened when he heard the name of the show that brought some joy in his miserable life.

"Yeah. I can't wait to see how it ends." The other boy sighed.

"You should go and buy the comic, then, Jerry. They're a lot further. You can get them at that comic store next block." The first boy grinned lightly.

"Thanks, Matt. I'll stop by there after school." Jerry replied.

'There are comics about Naruto?' Harry frowned before his eyes shined with an idea. 'I can read about it, and no one will ever know.'

* * *

He carefully scrounged up every loose coin he had managed to stash away behind a loose board on the far end of the cupboard where only he could reach and when he tallied it up, it came at a little over two pounds. Moving carefully as to stop the mass of coins from jingling, he reached the comics store his classmates had mentioned and walked in, quickly looking for the Naruto comics.

As he scanned the titles, his eyes caught the sight of a fan info booklet. He picked it up and saw it offered more detailed information about the Naruto world.

"Hi there. Can I help you?" He almost jumped out of his skin when the store owner approached him.

Gerald Stevens had spent over fifteen years as owner of this store, and in that time, he had seen every type of customer, and could sort them at a glance, which helped him greatly when dealing with shoplifters and rowdy customers.

So, when he saw the small child with the ratty clothes that was looking all over the store like he was scared of something, he immediately thought 'Great, another shoplifting brat.'

However, when the boy turned to face him, and he took a look at the boy's vibrant green eyes, he could tell that the boy had no intention of stealing anything.

"How much is this, sir?" He asked timidly.

"Three fifty, kid. It says so right there." He pointed to the price tag on the booklet.

"I only have two." Gerald could feel the anguish contained in those words as he watched the child's eyes dim to a dull, lifeless green. Harry put the booklet back and turned to leave, shoulders slumped and head hung low.

"Wait. Tell you what, kid. I have a number of defective comics in the back. You can have one of them for two pounds."

Gerald smiled as the boy perked up immediately and thanked him over ten times before he rushed away from the store. For once in his life, he was happy he had misjudged a customer.

* * *

Harry slowed down as he approached his home at number four, Privet Drive. He felt the neatness of the house was fake and forced. There was no life in it, just a feeling of control.

His relatives were busy watching TV, and didn't even bother to turn towards him as he slipped into the cupboard, knowing they wouldn't bother him until it was time for him to cook them dinner.

Despite his young age, he showed both great skill and more importantly, passion for cooking, making even the simplest dishes taste delicious. He would have enjoyed it more, of course if he was actually allowed to eat any of it.

He began reading the book, getting immersed into its pages within seconds. The first part detailed some information about some of the characters and the world itself. He was just about to start the part about the techniques that were used in the show when he heard the floor creak in protest as his uncle's heavy form stood up from his chair.

Hiding the book in his secret spot, Harry walked in and went to prepare dinner. Unlike his relatives, who got enough food to feed six men, he got only two pieces of bread and a glass of water.

Once back in his cupboard, he returned to his book, finally reading the descriptions on a few of the techniques used in the show, and more importantly, how they were performed.

* * *

Now, Harry knew that it wasn't real, but he saw no harm in pretending it was, so slowly, he put his hands in the basic hand sign used to gather energy, and focused with all his will on drawing out the power the show called chakra.

Within his body, his magical core felt the pull, and for a moment, the energy swirled in confusion, not recognizing the method Harry used to draw upon it. This reluctance lasted only for a moment, though. Magic existed to serve its wielders, and had an infinite ability to adapt. So, when Harry focused his will, thinking of chakra, his magic complied and streamed through his body.

Harry was starting to feel a bit silly, when suddenly, energy rushed through his body, filling him with a sensation the regularly underfed boy had never felt during his life with the Dursleys. The constant fatigue that was the result of back-breaking labor and lack of proper meals suddenly vanished as if it wasn't even there.

The sensation passed after a few moments, but Harry still felt better now that his magic was actively flowing through his body.

'I can use chakra?' He did not dare voice the thought out loud for fear of being overheard.

He began flipping the book's pages quickly, scanning the names and types of techniques it described with frantic eagerness. The possibilities was vast, but three things put a damper on his eagerness.

* * *

First, he had no idea how much chakra he had, and the book said that chakra exhaustion was often lethal. Second, he had no doubt that his chakra control was also very poor, which meant that he would probably waste most of his energy, and thirdly, was his lack of skill and physical conditioning.

In the show, the ninjas attended the Academy for years before they were even considered for graduation. He had no illusions that this would be in any way easy.

Going to sleep, he made his plans for the next day. The moment he had more free time, he would find a secret spot to train, and he would test his limits.

His moment of freedom came the following afternoon, as his aunt shooed both him and his cousin outside right after lunch.

After running away from Dudley and his gang to the nearby park, Harry noticed a more secluded area of the park that was a bit out of the way from the path.

A large hedge wall stretched on one side, while several slightly overgrown bushes circled a lone old oak tree.

Thanks to his small size, Harry managed to locate a path between two rose bushes, and found himself perfectly hidden from prying eyes.

* * *

First, he sat down and closed his eyes, trying to get a feel for the energy inside him and how it moved.

The power moving through him was constantly in motion, and was present in every single part of his body, which made it difficult to control.

It took him a while before he managed to consciously direct the flow, moving it to his hands, which made them tingle, or to the muscles on his arms or legs, which made them feel stronger.

Finally, having grasped how to move the energy, even if it took him a few seconds to direct it properly, he felt it was time for a real test.

He put his hands in the basic sign and directed his chakra towards his feet, or more precisely, to the soles of his shoes.

'This is harder then I thought.' His face scrunched up in focus as the energy resisted his commands, but slowly, he succeeded in accomplishing his task, creating a faint blue glow around his legs.

Moving slowly as to not to break his concentration, he approached the oak tree and put his foot against the bark, only to cause it to crack underneath it.

'Damn, I'm using too much.' He focused again, reducing the amount of energy. A minute later, he tried again, but his foot just slipped off without getting any traction.

He spent two hours playing with the amount of power he was using, and finally managed to get the right amount for his foot to stick to the bark without damaging it.

To his surprise, he could still feel a great amount of power within him, but his body felt dead tired from having to channel it constantly for the last couple of hours.

'So, I need to get in better shape if I want to be able to use larger amounts of chakra, huh?' He thought, feeling slightly grateful to his relatives for all the work they were forcing him to do.

If it wasn't for all the chores and the frequent runs thanks to his cousin's favorite game called Harry Hunting, he doubted he would have been able to last even that long.

* * *

He knew one thing, though. If he wanted to get better, he had to get more food then he was getting right now. It was a bit of a vicious circle. He had to get more food to become a better ninja, but to get more food; he had to be a better ninja.

Giving a sad smile to the irony of it all, he started to prepare dinner.

'If I could get even a quarter of what Dudley is getting, I'd have no trouble keeping myself strong.' He glanced sadly at the massive amount of food sitting before his cousin. It didn't look like he needed it, in fact Harry often said to himself that Dudley could survive for several weeks on his body fat alone.

As he sat on the table, munching several chips and a small, slightly burnt sausage, he got an idea.

He immediately looked through the techniques his book had, and quickly found the solution to his food problem.

* * *

The False Surroundings technique was a genjutsu, or an illusion that covered an area or object in a false image that affected everyone in the area of effect of the illusion. It could be used to trick your victim into walking in circles, for example, or more importantly to him, it could be used to disguise an object as something else. It was a simple, D-rank illusion that was easy to see through, at least for trained ninja.

Harry thought that if he could cloak his dish with a simple illusion, he could get himself more food without making his relatives suspicious.

Of course, there were several problems with his plan. First of all, he had no idea how to direct his chakra to cloak the target in mind, or how to cause the desired effect. On top of it, genjutsu required precise chakra control, which he didn't have.

Faced with these problems, he steeled his resolve and prepared himself to tackle them one at a time.

For the next two weeks, he spent every free moment he had in his secret training spot, working on tree walking or leaf balancing, where he put a leaf to his forehead and kept it there with his chakra.

After these two weeks, he was finally able to walk up the tree as if it was the ground, and even hang upside down the branches without falling off.

* * *

Determining his control sufficient for the moment, he moved on the three basic techniques every ninja had to know, the Transformation, the Clone and the Replacement technique.

The transformation was basically coating your body with a thin layer of chakra and forming it into the shape he needed.

Experiments with this technique greatly helped his ability to visualize the object that he wanted to change into, and after a while, his transformations looked pretty good, at least as much as he could tell from looking at the small puddle that was formed near the hedge fence of his training spot.

The clone technique was considered the most basic illusion there was, and as such, greatly helped him in figuring out how to project his energy outside his body.

The replacement, on the other hand, was deceptively simple, and unlike the other two, greatly depended on physical ability. After slamming himself into the oak tree at great speed, he decided to work on this particular technique after he had trained up a bit.

Now came the hard part. Training for the False Surroundings technique.

The easiest form of the technique was spreading it as a large cloud over an area, confusing everyone that walked into it.

* * *

It took Harry over three weeks to learn how to use it to his satisfaction, and in that time, he had caused a great deal of chaos in the park. Joggers and people passing through often found themselves going in circles, or ending up in completely different areas of the park then they intended, and he had caused a lot of trouble for a few young gentlemen when he had masked the signs on the park's restrooms with the opposite marking, leading the two men right into the ladies restroom after two women had walked in.

After that little prank, he decided his control of the technique was sufficient, and prepared himself to use it for what he intended it in the first place.

That day, he made a little extra food, and when his relatives weren't paying any attention to him, he weaved the well practiced hand signs and whispered "Ninpou: False Surroundings."

He felt the technique form in the room, and after splitting the food to the plates of his relatives, put a healthy portion of mashed potatoes on his plate as well as a small pork chop and covered it all in thick gravy.

He sat down, and to his immense pleasure, his relatives didn't comment on the contents of his plate, their eyes only seeing a scoop of potatoes and a single bone with a few shreds of meat on it.

Now that his food trouble was over, he could finally begin an exercise regiment that would help strengthen his body but not damage his growth. He had consulted with the school nurse about the subject, and she was more then happy to give him all sorts of advice and all on a level a young boy like him could understand.

After seven years of hell, Harry Potter's life was slowly starting to improve, and it was all thanks to a simple TV show.


	2. Chapter 2

Here comes chapter 2, and with it, the entry into the books timeline. Hope you'll forgive me the cliffy, I wanted Harry's first experience with magic to be in the next chapter.

**Chapter 2**

Almost a year had passed since Harry had started training in the shinobi arts, and thanks to his greatly improved diet and physical exercise, his abilities had grown significantly.

Over the year, he had mastered one more genjutsu that put a single person to sleep, as a precursor to the more advanced Temple of Nirvana illusion that affected a much wider range. Of course, it would be a while before he could try that one, as it was classed as an A-rank illusion.

Other than that, his other great accomplishment was the mastery of the replacement technique, and he could now switch with random objects to escape attack without slamming into things.

That skill coupled with chakra bursts to his legs meant that Harry Hunting was a thing of the past. Even when the bullies had managed to corner him in areas where he could not run away, like in school, Harry demonstrated an incredible ability to dodge, having worked extensively on his flexibility.

* * *

However, as his birthday came up, he decided to add a more advanced technique to his repertoire, and start branching out into ninjutsu as well.

Since offensive jutsu of any type would draw too much unwanted attention, he decided to start working on the Shadow Clone technique, which formed solid bodies of the user. They were not very durable, since a single solid hit would dispel them, but their advantage lay in the fact that when dispelled, everything the clone learned would return to the creator.

This had drawbacks, of course, since not only was there a risk of mental overload if you absorbed too much at once, but with the memories, you also received an impression of the clone's condition. That meant that if the clone was fatigued, that fatigue would affect you as well.

It took him a full day to figure out how the technique formed the chakra before he felt it safe to do so. Unlike the main character of Naruto, he didn't feel like he had chakra to burn, so he controlled its use very carefully, having added the water walking exercise to his training regime a few months ago.

The air next to him shimmered and from it, formed a second Harry. "It worked." He grinned widely.

"Of course it did. Did you expect to fail?" The clone replied.

"Well, I didn't use up too much chakra, so I can clearly make more." Harry mused.

"So, what should I do now, boss?" The clone asked.

"Well, it's a good thing it rained yesterday. You can work on water walking for a few hours. The puddle's not much, but it's not like we have access to a river or even a pool." Harry sighed, staring at the large puddle where he was forced to train his water walking skill.

"Sure thing, boss." The clone Harry saluted and walked to the puddle, stepping on top of the water like it was solid ground.

At the moment, Harry's limit was five clones. Any more then that, and his body started to feel the strain, and he also took great care to dispel them in five minute intervals to prevent any harm to himself.

Now that he had clones to cover reading and any chakra training, he had more times to focus on his physical development, and he was determined to get into peak shape by the end of the summer.

* * *

Sometimes, he wondered what it would be like if he could talk to anyone that wasn't a clone of himself, but, with the rumors that his relatives spread, telling everyone that he was deranged and dangerous, and with his cousin and his gang bullying everyone that even walked too close to him, it wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

The next thing that came to mind was to try a different type of clone. From the books he had purchased, he got knowledge of two more clone types, the Water clone and the Earth or mud clone.

His first attempt was with the water clone, but to his surprise, trying to form one cost him just as much chakra as a Shadow Clone. While this was a drawback, it told him that his chakra wasn't water natured.

In contrast, Earth clones took only a tenth of the power he needed to form Shadow clones. Earth clones didn't return the memories to the caster when dispelled, but having been made of such a durable material meant that they were also very tough. In fact, it usually took a killing blow to dispel them, so Harry quickly started using them for spars.

True, their skills were no better then his, but with the ability to put what he read about martial arts in practice, he was making slow, but steady progress with his unarmed combat.

Happy that earth type ninjutsu were easy for him to perform, which was a clear sign of earth natured chakra, he started practicing one more ninjutsu called the Headhunter technique, which allowed you to move beneath the earth and trap your opponent by pulling him down into the ground.

When performed correctly, only the victim's head remained above ground, hence the name of the technique.

* * *

When he summed his total skill in the three main shinobi branches, namely taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu, along with all other subjects he had been reading on, like survival, trap making and weapons handling, he could without any bragging call himself a rookie gennin, which was a significant accomplishment, since only a handful of ninja in the Naruto world became gennin at such a young age.

* * *

"Stupid human, making noise and breaking my nap. I should bite him, I should." Harry heard a faint voice while he was weeding the garden. There weren't a lot of chores he did around the house nowadays thanks to genjutsu, but he still did a lot of cooking and most of the yard work. The first, because he enjoyed it, and the second for the exercise it provided.

"Who said that?" Harry looked around, moving carefully around the yard.

"Just a little closer, human, and your ankle is mine." He heard the voice again, and this time, turned his eyes downwards, and noticed a garden snake eying his foot, coiled and ready to strike.

"You don't want to bite me." Harry said, more to himself, and was surprised when the snake unwound and raised its head so it could see him better.

"You can speak the serpent tongue." Its voice was full of surprise and awe.

"I do?" Harry blinked at this unexpected revelation.

"You can speak to me, can't you? My mother told me stories of humans who had the power to talk to serpents. I never thought I'd met one." The snake seemed pleased about that fact.

"So, what do I get out of this ability?" Harry asked.

"Snakes will not attack you if you speak with them, and will obey your orders unless it puts them in danger, or they are under the command of another speaker." The snake replied.

"Alright. One last question. Do you know if there's something like a contract with certain snakes or similar?" Harry got a sudden idea, and felt it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"I don't know, but I'll ask around and come back in three days." The snake replied.

"Thanks. I'll give you a mouse when you come back." Harry grinned when the snake's eyes lit up and it slithered away, singing an off-key song about mice.

* * *

While waiting for the snake's return, Harry went to read more details about the snake summoners in Naruto and their most used techniques. While the bulk of them required the signing of the snake contract or were too advanced, there was one thing that he could learn.

The Kanashibari or paralysis technique was a genjutsu variant that used projected killing intent to freeze your opponent in place for a few moments, allowing the user to launch a follow up strike against their opponent.

The problem was he had no real experience with producing killing intent, so it took him the full three days to master this technique, practicing mostly on the few cats and dogs he ran across.

* * *

"Where's my mouse?" He heard the snake speak from next to him as he was pruning a rose bush.

"Right here." He went to the tool shed and pulled a small mouse from an old toolbox. The snake swallowed it quickly and sighed contently.

"Did you find anything?"

"Yes. I asked around, and found that a contract exists. Once I learned that, I sent word to the contract guardian and he said that he would come to meet with you in a week." The snake replied.

"Why in a week?" Harry was surprised at the long delay.

"He said it would take him that long to come here from the Amazon, wherever that is." The snake gave him the equivalent of a shrug.

"That's on the other side of the world. How can you speak with someone that far?" Harry gasped in shock. How had the snake managed to speak with another snake across the world?

"I don't know, really. I just do it." The snake shrugged again.

"So, where should I meet this guardian?" Harry asked.

"I told him where you spend most of your time. He will meet you there." The snake replied.

He was a bit surprised that the snake knew where he trained, but then again, he was keeping an eye out for humans, not snakes that could hide in the thick hedge, the many bushes or even the tall grass in the area.

* * *

The week passed in a frenzy of training as Harry worked hard to refine his mastery of everything he had learned and also expand his chakra pool.

"So, you are the one that seeks the contract." Harry looked up and let out a surprised gasp.

Above him, curled around a branch of the oak tree was a twelve foot long snake with rainbow like scales and two long feathery wings that sprouted from just behind its head.

"That is correct, honored guardian." Harry spoke in the most respectful tone he could muster.

"You are a most interesting human, hatchling. So young, yet I sense great power in you. Becoming our summoner is a privilege, young hatchling, and one that the spirits can revoke at will, should you become unworthy of the contract we have formed with you." The coatl spoke in a lazy, almost bored tone.

"I will strive not to disappoint the spirits of the serpents." Harry replied firmly.

"A good answer. Very well, hatchling. I will grant you the contract." With that, the coatl slithered down to the ground, where it unhinged its jaw and spat out a long rolled up scroll made of something that felt like snake skin, affixed on an ornate wooden rod with twin snake heads formed on the ends.

Harry unrolled the scroll and scanned the names of the previous summoners, only to find there were only three other names. The first was written in symbols completely unknown to him, and the second was written with Egyptian hieroglyphics. The third was written in Old English in long, serpentine handwriting. It took him a few moments to read the name which said 'Salazar Slytherin.'

Recognizing the dark ink for what it was, Harry pulled out a thick needle that was stuck in his shirt that he had cleaned and sterilized beforehand and pricked his thumb, using the thick needle as a makeshift pen. Once his name was signed, the scroll rolled up on its own.

"Congratulations, summoner. Now that you've signed the contract, you are also tasked with guarding it, so please, take the scroll and swallow it." Harry stared at the coatl as if it suddenly sprouted two extra heads.

"Excuse me? What do you mean I have to swallow this thing? It's longer then my whole arm." Harry snapped.

"The scroll has powers on its own, hatchling. You will not even know it is there." The coatl gave him the serpent equivalent of a chuckle.

Feeling apprehensive, Harry picked the scroll up and tilting his head upwards, started sinking the long scroll in his mouth. He felt the rough texture of it on his tongue, but when it hit the edge of his throat, it was as if the scroll vanished completely.

After finally getting the whole thing inside his mouth and into whatever was sucking it in, he looked around only to find the coatl was already gone.

"Well, let's see if this thing was worth it." Harry formed a series of hand signs with his still bleeding thumb and slammed his hand on the ground.

A puff of smoke burst from beneath his hand, and when it cleared, he saw a foot long asp staring intently at him.

"You called me, summoner?" It asked calmly.

"I was just testing the contract. You are free to leave." Harry grinned. A summoning contract was merely the first step to becoming a truly great ninja.

* * *

Now that he had a contract, he continued to train hard so that he could expand his chakra reserves and thus summon stronger and larger snakes.

His life went on in the same unbroken routine, day after day, until his cousin's eleventh birthday.

His parents had planned for a zoo trip for Dudley, and Harry was as usual, to stay with a neighbor called Mrs. Figg, an older woman with a whole herd of cats in her house.

What the Dursleys didn't know was that Harry would just put the woman under a mild genjutsu and spend the day in training.

This time, however, it seemed that he would be accompanying the Dursleys on their trip, since Mrs. Figg recently broke her leg and was thus unable to take care of him.

So, it was with a sigh at the lost training time that Harry found himself squashed between Dudley and his friend Piers as they traveled towards the London zoo.

Despite his initial misgivings, Harry ended up having a good time as he observed all sorts of strange and exotic creatures that he had only read about so far.

* * *

The reptile house turned out to be one huge heckling show, with the human visitors as the victims.

"Yeah, just keep walking, tubby." "Wow, look at her, she's ugly even for human standards." "I'd bite his face off if this stupid glass wasn't here."

Harry had to stifle his laughter as the snakes abused the people observing them in every way possible.

As he stood, listening to a pair of cobras discuss in great detail the high possibility that his relatives were some strange crossbreed of humans and animals, he heard a faint hiss from behind him.

"You, with the messy black hair, come closer." Harry turned around and saw a ten foot long sandy snake with a black stripe on its back look at him intently.

"A wizard at last. Please, you have to get me out of this damn place. The lack of magic is killing me." The snake hissed pleadingly.

While confused about its words, Harry was not a person to let it suffer and die, so after carefully weaving a genjutsu, he started to examine the glass, trying to find a way around it.

With his mind focused on the glass, he suddenly felt his chakra flare up for a moment, and to his astonishment, the glass simply vanished.

The snake immediately rushed out and wrapped itself around his waist like a belt.

"Your magic is strong, wizard. I'm starting to feel better already." The snake hissed gratefully.

"We'll talk later." Harry hissed in reply and moved his genjutsu to hide his new companion.

* * *

"So, what sort of snake are you?" Harry asked his new companion once they were safely back in Harry's room. It took a lot of effort on his part to convince his relatives to give him Dudley's second bedroom, but he managed it.

"I am an Egyptian striped asp, wizard, the deadliest serpent there is." It said proudly.

"Why do you call me wizard?" Harry asked curiously.

"That is what those with magic are called. I sensed your power, and knew that you could help me. As thanks, I offer myself as your familiar." The snake replied.

"You said you were deadly?" Harry asked after a few moments.

"There is no antidote for my venom other then the tears of a phoenix, but the legendary birds of fire are very rare. Furthermore, my bite does not kill instantly. Those I bite will suffer great agony for hours before their inevitable death." The snake sounded smug at this fact. Before signing the contract, Harry would have been shocked at this, but he learned from his summons that lethality was a trait serpents valued greatly, since it meant less trouble when hunting pray.

"So, how do you become my familiar?" Harry asked.

"Take some of my blood, and give me some of yours in return. Then, you must name me." The snake replied.

"Alright." Harry pricked the snake with the needle that was always present on his pants so he could easily nick his thumb for summoning, and licked the blood off before he pricked his thumb and offered the needle to the snake.

"As for a name…" He thought for several minutes before it hit him.

"I will call you Acheron. In mythology, it was the name of the river of pain." Harry explained.

"I like it, master. You should also know that my venom cannot harm you now." The newly named Acheron replied happily.

"I'm glad you like it. Come on, I'd like to get some training done today. I'm still trying to master that damn technique." Harry let Acheron wrap around his waist again as he went to his training spot in the park.

* * *

"Alright then. Sen'eijashu." Harry cocked his hand back and swung it forward, letting a single snake shoot out of his long sleeve and wrap around a branch of the oak tree. To his dismay, however, the snake vanished moments later.

"You're the snake summoner?" Acheron's eyes were comically wide at the sight.

"Yeah, sorry for not telling you earlier." Harry grinned lightly.

"If my family knew I was the familiar of the snake summoner, they'd die of envy." Acheron's eyes practically glowed at the thought. "Master, do you think you could make a little trip to Egypt?"

"Sorry, but I'm not taking you to Egypt just so you can brag about me." Harry laughed. It seemed he had finally found a friend to talk with.

* * *

"It's incredible how much a single letter scared them. I wonder what it was about?" Harry was relaxing in the garden, hidden by genjutsu while an Earth clone was doing the yard work. The strange letters started coming a week before his birthday and his relatives were quickly losing their sanity thanks to them. His uncle actually boarded up the mail slot and the next day, every possible crack on the door, making it impossible to open, so they were forced to go in and out from the back door.

"Why didn't you just take the letter, master?" Acheron mused from his lap.

Harry took a long sip from his glass of iced fresh lemonade before he answered.

"These letters obviously distress my relatives, and whoever is sending those shows no inclination that they will stop anytime soon, so I can just get one whenever the next batch arrives. In the meantime, watching my relatives suffer under the constant barrage of letters if far too amusing to let it end quickly." Harry laughed viciously. While not a vengeful person by nature, he saw no reason to ease the suffering of the Dursley family at this time.

His uncle Vernon finally snapped from the extremely increasing number of letters that their home was getting bombarded with and decided to take them all on a drive through the country, often backtracking and taking random turns.

It was a sound tactic considering Vernon was standing on the edge of complete panic until their wanderings led them to a little hut out on a rock in the sea during a violent storm.

It was actually a pretty good hiding spot, and Harry was curious to see whether or not the person who was sending them letters at home as well as everywhere they stopped for the night would manage to get to the cabin.

Slowly, the Dursleys started to fall asleep, and as it neared midnight, only Harry was left awake.

"Happy birthday, master." Acheron poked his head from his collar and hissed in a comforting tone.

"Thanks." He scratched him beneath his jaw for a moment before the snake retreated back to the warmth beneath his shirt.

And then, just at the stroke of midnight, someone started to pound at the door. On the third strike, The door gave in and Harry stared as the biggest man he had ever seen calmly walked inside.


	3. Chapter 3

Another chapter done now. The sorting and the start of year one comes with the next chapter.

MartinDeShade: To answer your questions, no, chakra is not just magic, and that will be explained further in the story. As for the contract, it is actually used to summon spiritual serpents to guide the summoner. For wizards, the only way to make them corporeal is to imbue them into living snakes. Harry can make them solid only because he creates a chakra based body for them.

**Chapter 3**

"Stay back, I'm armed." Vernon threatened the large man with a rifle as he and Petunia rushed out from the other room where they slept.

"Oh, be quiet, Dursley you old prune." The man scoffed as he stopped before Vernon and effortlessly bent the barrel of the rifle before yanking it from his hands.

Vernon managed a quiet whimper before he backed away from the large man. Meanwhile, Harry examined the stranger carefully. He guessed the man was about nine feet tall and had a wide, stocky build that clearly gave him great strength and body mass. Harry had no doubt that if this man decided to tackle someone that someone would not be getting up again on his own power, if at all.

"Harry, there you are. You've grown since I last saw you. You were such a wee thing back then. Got something for you. Might have sat on it at some point, but it will taste alright." The man handed him a large box. Inside it was a large birthday cake for him.

True, the cake was crushed, but the mere gesture of it touched Harry. To think someone he didn't even know would actually care enough to remember his birthday.

"Thank you. If you don't mind me asking, who are you?" Harry decided to indulge his curiosity at last.

"Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Of course, you'll know all about Hogwarts." The man spoke proudly.

"Not really. Is this something related to magic?" Harry asked.

"How do you know that, boy?" Vernon asked sharply.

"Acheron told me I'm a wizard, and that my magic was very strong." Harry grinned.

"And who the hell is this Acheron character?" Vernon growled at the thought of a stranger with an even stranger name that dared filled his nephew's head with such nonsense, but the deep burgundy spread over his large face turned to pasty white when a snake's head poked from Harry's collar.

"This is Acheron, uncle. Say hello, Acheron." The second part was said with a strange hiss that made everyone in the room gasp in shock.

* * *

"Blimey, you're a parselmouth." Hagrid was clutching his chest as he collapsed on the rickety couch, which groaned heavily in protest.

"A what?" Harry cocked his head to the side as he looked at them. Meanwhile, Vernon was starting to sweat as Acheron slithered down Harry and was moving towards him. He began to circle the man closely which only added to his nervousness.

"A striped asp? That's the deadliest magical snake there is." Hagrid's shock grew further as he recognized the breed of the snake that was now occasionally nipping at Vernon's heels. This only caused Vernon to whimper in fright as he barely retained bowel control.

"That's enough, Acheron." Harry commanded and the snake returned to him, crawling up his leg and back under his shirt.

"You're lucky he didn't bite you, uncle. From what he told me, it takes hours for a human to die from the bite. Several agonizing hours, in fact." Harry gave him a very evil grin as he scratched his familiar on the underside of his jaw.

"Harry, just to warn you, people don't take kindly to parselmouths. It is considered a Dark gift." Hagrid finally found his voice after his relatives scampered away.

"Are you one of them?" Harry asked calmly as he sat on a rickety chair across from Hagrid.

"Nah, you just surprised me, that's all. Although, I can't say I'm fond of the little buggers." He laughed a bit.

"So, what is Hogwarts?" Harry asked the first of the many questions rolling in his mind.

"Only the finest school of magic in the world. Seven years there, and you won't recognize yourself." Hagrid grinned.

You said people don't like parselmouths. Is it a rare gift?" Harry continued.

"Very rare. I know only one other person that had it. His name was Tom Riddle, but he later became known as Lord Voldemort." Hagrid shivered at the name. "People usually call him You-Know-Who."

"Why?" Harry was surprised at the fear Hagrid showed at the mere mention of the name.

"A few years back, the magical world was at war. Those were dark times, people were dying all over the country, you didn't know who to trust anymore in case they were one of his followers." Hagrid sighed.

"What happened then?"

"Well, your parents were a part of the group that was fighting him and his followers, and even fought him a few times. Then, your parents went into hiding. It seems he had them marked for death or something. Well, he managed to find out where you were hidden and attacked on Halloween ten years ago. After he killed your parents, he turned his wand on you, but for some reason, his curse bounced back and destroyed him, while leaving you with that scar. You're famous in the magical world because of that." Hagrid grinned.

"Thank you for telling me this. So, what do we do now?" Harry asked.

"You should go to sleep. Tomorrow, I'll take you to London to buy your school stuff." Hagrid replied.

* * *

As was his habit, Harry woke up early and went outside of the hut and started practicing the latest taijutsu kata he was learning. He did this for about an hour until he saw an owl approach the hut with something clutched in its talons.

He returned to the hut to find the recently awakened Hagrid reading a newspaper Harry saw was titled the Daily Prophet.

"Shall we go, Harry?" Hagrid led him outside and into a small, dingy boat.

The pair drew some strange looks from the people on the Underground because of Hagrid's size, but other than that, the journey was peaceful.

Having remembered that Hagrid said Harry was famous in the magical world, Harry changed his looks with a simple transformation and used a genjutsu on Hagrid to make the large man see him as if he wasn't disguised.

The entrance to Britain's magical shopping district turned out to be a dingy old pub called the Leaky Cauldron. It looked like it came right out of the dark ages, and the patrons certainly fit in. Everyone was wearing robes and cloaks, and one nervous looking man was actually wearing a turban.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley, Harry." Hagrid beamed proudly as he opened the gate to the alley behind the bar.

Harry was staring in awe at the sights before him, shocked that a place like this was actually real.

There were shops selling all sorts of strange items like wands, robes, flying brooms, and from what he heard from one witch, even dragon livers and who knows what else.

"First stop is Gringotts." Hagrid led him to a very large building made of white marble. It was the bank of the magical world, run by magical creatures called goblins. From the amount of armed guards in the building, he knew that they were not something he wanted to mess with.

After Hagrid produced Harry's vault key from one of his many pockets, they were led to a side passage by a goblin called Griphook and into what looked like a mine cart that took them deep into the bowels of the bank.

"Goblins must know a lot about metal working." Harry commented after they stopped by his vault and where he filled a special expanded bag he got in the lobby with a generous amount of coins. After that, they went to a second vault where Hagrid retrieved a small package.

"Goblins are the best metal workers in the world. Why do you ask?" Griphook said proudly, with more then a little arrogance thrown in.

"I wanted to buy a weapon." Harry's reply surprised both Griphook and Hagrid.

"You cannot buy a goblin weapon, Mr. Potter, only rent one. Everything made by goblins belongs to the goblins." Griphook informed him.

"Can you recommend a place where I CAN buy a weapon?" Harry asked.

"There's a blacksmith called Vesuvio's in Knockturn Alley. His work is far below our standards, though." Griphook's voice had a hint of disdain this time.

"Thank you for the information." Harry thanked him as he and Hagrid stepped out of the cart and out of the bank.

* * *

"I think a good trunk should be the first thing to buy." Harry turned to his guide. Hagrid just nodded and took him to a trunk shop.

Ten minutes later and a hundred galleons spent, Harry walked out of the trunk shop with a brand new four compartment trunk.

The first one was just twice as big then the outside and was used to store clothes. The second featured a bookcase that popped out of the trunk and where he stored all his books. The third was designed to store potions and potions supplies and had over a hundred jars and vials of different sizes neatly arranged in special shelves along with over five hundred strips of parchment that could be used for labels.

The fourth was five times bigger then the outside, and was empty. Harry planned to store his weapons in this compartment.

* * *

Over the course of the day, Hagrid received one surprise after another from Harry. First, in the stationary store, Harry shocked the clerk when he asked for a calligraphy set. It took the man a few minutes, but he finally found a set made from beautifully carved mahogany.

Again, in Madam Malkin's, Harry purchased a two small rolls of dragon hide, and also asked what was the best way to work with the hide.

"Please, Hagrid. It's important to me." Harry begged the large man as they stood at the entrance to Knockturn Alley, since Hagrid refused to allow Harry to go in there. Fortunately for Harry, after a few minutes, the large man relented and led him down into the infamous alley.

"Welcome to Vesuvio's. What can I do for you?" A middle aged man covered in soot greeted them.

"I want to place an order for some items." Harry pulled out several sheets of paper. He had them for over a year now, and it took him months of research to find out how these particular weapons were made.

"I need three hundred of these, a hundred of these and a hundred of these. I also need two hundred yards of wire matching these properties." Harry handed him the designs for shuriken, kunai and caltrops along with the info for the wire.

"This is a most unusual order. I've never seen weapons like these." The smith examined the papers carefully.

"They're a foreign design. Make sure the first two are well balanced." Harry replied.

"Alright. Let's see, high grade steel, and these things will require special molds too. I'll need four hundred galleons and six months to finish them." The smith replied.

"I'll give you six hundred if you can make a third by the 30th of August." Harry grinned as the man's eyes shined at the thought.

"Deal. I want half now, half on completion." The smith grinned and Harry pulled out three hundred galleons, leaving him with about fifty in his bag.

"Harry, why do you need weapons?" Hagrid asked with a frown.

"Nothing special, really. I was training in Muggle fighting, and the teacher showed us some weapons. I wanted to have some of my own so I could train. Besides, if anyone attacked me, they won't expect I have Muggle weapons as well." Harry grinned lightly.

"Just be careful with them, alright?" Hagrid gave him a stern look.

"Hagrid, I promise I will only use them in the direst circumstances." Harry's words reassured the large man and Hagrid led him to the pet store where Harry bought a large box of mice and little birds kept in stasis for Acheron.

* * *

After that, the only thing remaining was Harry's wand, and Hagrid led him to Ollivander's. "The best shop for wands there is, Harry."

"Ah, Mr. Potter. I was wondering when you would show up." Ollivander gave him a creepy vibe, but it was obvious that he knew his stuff from the mere fact the old man managed so see through his disguise.

Much to Ollivander's growing excitement, it seemed that no wand would suit Harry. Several wands came close, like one that was made of holly with a phoenix feather core, but it wasn't close enough.

"Hmm, I wonder. I recently received a shipment of wands from a friend of mine from Asia asking me to study them. They are all highly experimental, using previously unexplored combinations. Give them a try." Ollivander handed him a box with a dozen wands in it, and after a few tries, a wand erupted with a flurry of snowflakes, filling the whole store with five inches of snow the moment he gripped it.

"Marvelous. Ten inches, made of holly and with the hair of a legendary Japanese Yuki-Onna." The old man explained with a wide grin after he managed to clear out the snow from his store.

"How much is it?" Harry asked.

"No charge, Mr. Potter, but I will ask you to send me some letters explaining how it serves you. What subjects does it work best, what spells do you have difficulty with and which come easy and so on." Ollivander replied.

"I can do that. Thank you, Mr. Ollivander." Harry grinned as he tucked the wand in the new holster that the strange old man gave him with the wand.

* * *

"That was one strange day." Harry grinned to himself as he finally collapsed on his bed. It seemed his relatives returned from their sojourn in the cabin on that little island none worse for the wear, and had avoided him completely, lest they meet his little scaly friend.

Harry spent the next month reading through the books on magic, comparing the spells they contained with the ninja techniques he practiced.

* * *

"That way, master, the barrier is hidden in that pillar." Acheron directed his master from behind the high collar of Harry's shirt in King's Cross station. After hearing that, Harry calmly looked around and choosing a good moment, walked through the seemingly solid brick wall. His trunk was already shrunk and safe in his pocket, due to the self-shrinking charm it had on it.

"I'm going to check my trunk. Feel free to relax." Harry let Acheron slither on one of the seats as he started checking the compartments.

The last one was of course, something he wouldn't let other see. It held several racks with rows of kunai, shuriken as well as a box full of caltrops. Everything was sharp and ready to be used.

This compartment also held several pouches he had managed to fashion using the dragon hide. It took him a few tries, but he had some experience with sewing, and his last ones turned out pretty good. There were two hip pouches and two kunai holsters, one green and one black. The kunai holsters had fifteen kunai each, while the pouches had thirty shuriken and thirty caltrops.

The difference between the black and green pouch was simple. The kunai and shuriken in the green ones were all coated in Acheron's venom. Since Harry was immune to it, he saw no reason not to use it if he had to.

* * *

"Master, may I eat this?" Harry looked up and saw Acheron constricting a panicking toad. He closed the trunk with a sigh and put it back in his pocket.

"He's probably someone's pet, Acheron. Besides, I fed you this morning. You don't want to get fat, do you?" Harry admonished him.

"Excuse me, have you…" A girl with bushy brown hair walked in and froze at the sight of the large serpent coiled around the toad.

"Trevor." A nervous boy with a gentle, round face joined her a moment later.

"Is this your toad?" Harry plucked the frightened animal from Acheron's coils and handed him to the boy. For once, the toad didn't mind being in his owner's hands.

"Thank you." The boy said weakly as he watched as the serpent crawled up the boy's sleeve.

"Why do you have a snake with you? They're not allowed at Hogwarts." The girl finally found her voice.

"As pets, no. However, Acheron is my familiar. The rules allow familiars regardless of species." Harry replied as he gestured for them to join him.

"Is he really your familiar?" Her eyes shone with eagerness.

"Yes he is. We've been bonded for a while now. Oh, where are my manners. Harry Potter, at your service." Harry introduced himself with a wide grin as he held his hand out to them.

"I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Neville Longbottom. You're really Harry Potter?" The fire in her eyes was visible now.

"Last time I checked, yes. And yes, I know I'm mentioned in a lot of books, but I'd take the stories about me with a grain of salt." Harry gave her a shrug.

"What do you mean?" Hermione frowned.

"Well, on the night of my supposed triumph, four people were present. Three are dead, and one was a fifteen month old infant. Therefore, everything those books say about that night is speculation at best." Harry replied.

"That makes some sense." Hermione mused.

"May I offer you a word of advice? You're muggleborn, right?" Harry asked and she nodded in reply.

"I can see you're very smart and that you love to read. You should be very careful in classes, then. A lot of pureblood wizards will not like a mudblood showing them up." Neville gasped loudly at that.

"If I said that word, my gran would scourgify my mouth." He said nervously.

"Don't worry; I'm not someone to use it either. I'm not telling not to do your best, but in class, don't do more then the other bright students." Harry gave her a firm and serious look.

"I'll keep it in mind. You know, when I found out I might meet Harry Potter; I didn't expect someone so serious and mature." She said pensively.

"I'll take it as a compliment." Harry grinned.

* * *

Again, his compartment door was suddenly opened and a boy with a pointy face and platinum blond hair walked in.

"I heard Harry Potter was on this train. Are you him?" He asked in a haughty tone.

"No. Name's Evans, James Evans. But if you do find him, can you get me his autograph?" Harry grinned at the blond boy who just gave them a quick glare and walked away.

"Why did you lie to him?" Hermione asked once the blond was gone.

"Neville, why don't you tell her?" Harry turned to Neville.

"That was Draco Malfoy. His family is really big on the whole pureblood tripe. His dad was accused of being a Death Eater, but he got freed by claiming he was under the Imperius. Gran said he had to give out some heavy bribes to get that to stick." Neville replied, gaining confidence as he spoke.

"How did you know that?" Hermione turned to Harry.

"Wait a moment." Harry pulled his trunk out and opened the library compartment. There wasn't much in it at the moment, but Harry had bought over three dozen books and thanks to Kage Bunshin, he had almost read them all.

"Here, 'Magical Etiquette and Modern magical families and their ancestry.' You can return them once you read them. Just to warn you, the second book is heavy on the pureblood propaganda." Harry handed her the two books.

At that moment, a voice echoed that they would be arriving soon.

"We should go back to our compartment. Thanks for the books, Harry." Hermione smiled.

"Don't mention it. See you two later." Harry grinned.

"Their magic is strong, master. Not like yours, but still strong. They will be good allies in the future." Acheron commented.

"Yes, they have a lot of potential. Now, let's see the sort of havoc we can cause in this place." Harry grinned widely. Hogwarts and the magical world had no idea what was coming.


	4. Chapter 4

A new chapter is finally done. Sorry for the delay, RL was the usual bitchy self.

**Chapter 4**

Harry stepped off the train into the crowd of students and for a few moments stood there until he heard Hagrid's voice boom over the noise of the platform.

"First years. First years over here." He caught sight of the large man and quickly made his way to him, pushing through the crowd of older students.

He noticed Hermione and Neville standing next to each other, and he moved next to them.

"Alright then, follow me." Hagrid led them from the platform down to the lake where a bunch of boats were waiting for them.

"No more then four to a boat." Hagrid informed them as the first years began boarding the boats. Harry got into one together with Hermione and Neville, along with another girl that introduced herself as Lavender Brown.

From their seats in the boats, they could see the shining shape of Hogwarts before them, and everyone could agree that it was a spectacular sight.

"The first years, professor McGonagall." Hagrid led them from an inner dock to a small side hall where an older, stern looking woman awaited them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. In a few moments, you will be sorted into your respective houses. During your stay here, those houses will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will have you lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor.

The Sorting Ceremony will start in a few moments before the rest of the school, so I suggest you smarten yourselves up while you wait." McGonagall walked away.

* * *

While the other students were chatting, Harry used the opportunity to recheck his mental protection. He knew that there was ninjutsu that could read people's minds, so he tried to find a way to prevent such intrusions.

From what he could find out, there were two possible methods, seals or genjutsu applied within a person's mindscape. Since he didn't know how to create seals, he used genjutsu to cloak his whole mind in shadows. Since he was the caster, he was unaffected, and it cost very little chakra to maintain. Of course, he had no way of knowing if his protection was actually effective, but it was better to have a protection in place instead of nothing at all.

While he was preparing himself, McGonagall had returned and led them to a massive hall.

The hall was packed with students sitting on four long tables, but what caught his eye was the ceiling, or what appeared to be a lack thereof. The ceiling looked like the sky outside.

'That's some illusion.' Harry thought as he waited for the Sorting Ceremony to start.

The mysterious means of sorting was revealed to be a talking enchanted hat, and from its song it was over a millennium old, having once been the property of Godric Gryffindor, one of the school's Founders.

Out of his two new friends, Hermione went first, and ended up in Ravenclaw. Neville was next, and the shy boy went in Hufflepuff after a minute of him wearing the hat. And soon enough, McGonagall read his name and the Hall erupted in whispers.

'Do you mind getting rid of these damn shadows, boy?' A voice echoed in his mind.

Surprised that his genjutsu worked, Harry quickly did a mental release of the illusions.

'Ah yes, a most interesting mind you have, Mr. Potter, and such an intriguing protection you've devised. Sorting you will be quite the challenge.' The hat mused.

'What are my choices?' Harry asked quickly.

'Well, I don't see you in Hufflepuff with the lifestyle you've chosen. Ravenclaw might work out for you, but only barely. Gryffindor or Slytherin is the house for you.' The hat replied.

'Well, I do have the snake contract, and Slytherin was the last owner.' Harry pointed out.

'Yes, he always was smug about that particular subject. Well, you would fit nicely, and Slytherin can help you on the road to greatness. So, let it be…' "SLYTHERIN." The hat shouted out and Harry finally took his hat off and headed towards the Slytherin table while the whole Hall stared at him in shocked surprise.

* * *

Finally, just as he sat down his new house burst into applause and cheers for their newest member.

Harry sat down across from Draco Malfoy, who didn't seem pleased Harry blew him off on the train.

"Why didn't you tell me you were Harry Potter?" Draco hissed across the table.

"A few boys were bugging me for an autograph earlier, and I thought you were after that too." Harry shrugged.

"Oh. Don't worry about that from me. I'm Draco Malfoy, by the way." The blond boy held out his hand to Harry.

"Nice to meet you." Harry gave him a grin before turning his attention back to the sorting.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Harry's eyebrow rose at those strange words, but chose not to say anything.

Instead, he focused on the nearly appeared food.

* * *

"Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore stood up after the dessert was cleared.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." This caught Harry's attention. His instincts told him there was more to this than it met the eye.

Once dinner was over, the prefects led the first years to their respective dormitories. Harry joined the group of Slytherins and headed down into the dungeons. The entrance was an easy to miss patch of wall and the password was 'Purity'.

* * *

"Out of my way, half-blood." A fourth year tried to push Harry down as he passed him, however after enduring years of bullying by his relatives, he wasn't about to allow anyone to bully him again. Pushing some chakra through his body, he grabbed the boy's hand and executed a perfect judo slam.

"Be careful, the floor looks slippery." Harry grinned at the shell-shocked boy and walked away.

* * *

Hogwarts, Harry discovered was the most confusing and ill conceived structure he had ever seen in his life. The whole castle seemed to rearrange itself whenever it felt like it, and navigating it was quite the challenge.

Then, there were the classes themselves. Astronomy was interesting, and he enjoyed Hermione's company during the evening. History on the other hand was incredibly dull, and the teacher, a ghost named Binns had a dull, droning tone and from what the older students told them, never taught anything else but goblin rebellions.

In Herbology, Harry partnered up with Neville, who seemed to have some knowledge about the subject. Some of his Slytherin peers teased him about hanging out with a Hufflepuff, but so far, no one tried to go further then light teasing.

His first trouble came during his first Transfiguration class, which was together with Gryffindor. The lions didn't say anything to their Slytherin peers, although several of them shot Harry a nasty glare.

McGonagall was a very strict teacher that demanded the absolute focus from her students. Of course, considering the dangers of incorrectly done Transfiguration, she had every right to be.

For the first half of the class, they took down a lot of complicated notes; they were each given a needle and told to turn it into a needle.

Harry pointed his wand at the match performing the movement and incantation with shinobi precision, however, nothing happened.

He tried several more times, but again and again, nothing happened. It was then he noticed that for some reason, there was no draw on his chakra. Feeling a bit confused about this, he tried the spell again, pushing out enough chakra for a simple transformation technique.

The match glowed blue for a second, and then transformed into a perfect needle, with one single exception. It was over six feet long.

"Oh my. I daresay this is the first time that has happened in my class. Take five points to Slytherin, Mr. Potter, however, try to restrain yourself in the future." McGonagall gave him a small smile as she waved her wand over the javelin-needle and turned it back into a match.

* * *

The same problem appeared in charms, as well. They were taught how to send simple sparks from their wands, to, as professor Flitwick explained, get a feel of how to move their magic through a wand. While most students shot out a gentle burst of warm sparks, Harry's wand erupted in a torrent of fiery sparks that incinerated a whole desk and the chair behind it. Fortunately, the desk in question was not occupied. 'Damn, and I put a lot less power in it as well.'

Harry had managed to consciously push the smallest amount of chakra he could control in his spells, but even that seemed too much for such simple spells.

* * *

"So, is there something like magical exhaustion?" Harry asked the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey. He had come to her on Flitwick's suggestion, to get a checkup and see if anything was wrong with him.

"Very advanced spells can exhaust the caster, Mr. Potter, but it's nothing a good night's rest and a hearty meal can't fix." The matron replied. Her observations yielded nothing unusual, save for his unusually high magical levels. She assured him he'll get better at controlling it with practice, and gave him a strict order not to cast any spells on another student, due to the possibility of injury.

As Harry walked out, he begun thinking of the difference between magic and chakra. He still vividly remembered his sole chakra exhaustion. If a pair of his clones weren't still around, he might have died. Even then, it took him two days before he was even able to move from his bed.

* * *

At last, there was only one class he hadn't had yet. Potions was taught by his Head of House, Severus Snape. His sole meeting with the man was very brief, as the man simply handed him his schedule and walked away, but Harry got the impression he was not a man to cross.

That aside, Potions was actually something he was very interested in, considering the amount of poisons and antidotes the art was capable of producing.

Snape swept into the classroom and immediately set an intimidating atmosphere. His eyes lingered briefly on Harry, but only for a moment.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," Snape's voice was barely more than a whisper, but despite that, his words were clearly heard.

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. . . . I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

"Potter," Snape turned towards him after taking roll. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"Well, sir, based on the properties of those two plants, I would say a sleeping or sedative potion, based on what the other ingredients are." Harry replied, having studied those plants along with a few others as a preliminary preparation of his attempts to create sleeping and paralytic agents intended for capture of live targets.

"That is correct, Mr. Potter. Take five points for Slytherin." Snape gave him an approving nod and started them on today's lesson, a simple potion to cure boils. Harry was partnered with Millicent Bulstrode, a rather large girl that some would describe as manly.

Most first years ignored her, but Harry managed to befriend her. Despite her appearance and reputation, she was very shy. Even now, she alternated between snaps and whispers, alternating between her shy self and the image she projected to others.

Despite this, their potion turned out perfectly, and Snape gave them five more points for this.

* * *

"Hey guys. How was first week of school?" Harry and Millicent joined Hermione and Neville in the library.

"Why did you bring me here with them?" Millicent gave him a glare.

"Be nice, Millicent, they are my friends. And, they can be your friends as well. Isn't that right?" Harry grinned at the two, who gave her a welcoming nod.

"Well, it's all very interesting, and I'm learning so much new things as well. Did you figure out why your spells acted like they did in class, Harry?" Hermione spoke first.

"Madam Pomfrey said I was putting too much power in them. She said I'll get better once I improve my control." Harry grinned.

"That's good to know. So, what do you think about the classes?" Hermione continued.

"Pretty interesting so far. Have you been having any trouble with anything?" Harry asked.

"Too early to say. Neville however was talking to me about help with Transfiguration and Potions." She turned to the rotund boy.

"Yeah, I've been having some trouble getting the hang of them. I can ask someone else if you're too busy." He said nervously.

"Neville, we're never too busy to help a friend. Tell you what. Millie here is pretty good with potions, but she has some trouble with Herbology. You can help each other there, and Hermione and I can help you with Transfiguration when we're available." Harry offered.

"Thanks, I'd love to help her." Neville smiled at Millicent, who gave him a shy smile in return.

* * *

Meanwhile, a second meeting was taking place in a different part of the school.

"…and his power is quite impressive, Albus. I doubt even you could do something like that." McGonagall was talking excitedly to the Headmaster.

"It is indeed impressive, Minerva. Thank you for your report." Albus dismissed his Deputy and turned to the waiting form of Snape.

"His skill with Potions is quite good as well. He seems to have inherited his mother's skill for the art. I have, however been unable to take a glimpse into his mind. Whenever I try, all I encounter is shadows and darkness. It's like his mind isn't even there." Snape growled. His skill at Legilimency had never failed him before, at least not against people who didn't know Occlumency.

"Mr. Potter has devised a very unique method of Occlumency. Even I could not read his mind." The Sorting Hat joined the discussion.

"What?" But you can penetrate even the strongest mental shields." Dumbledore exclaimed.

"But even I cannot read what I can't find. Mr. Potter has no mental shields aside from his natural protections. His mind is merely concealed." The Hat returned to its dormant state again.

"An ingenious solution indeed. How is Harry fitting in your house?" Dumbledore chuckled before asking his question.

"Higgs apparently tried to rough him up a bit the first night here, but from what I've been told, Potter laid him on the floor with a single move. It is possible he has been learning Muggle fighting. His choice of friends has also drawn some hostility from his peers in Slytherin." Snape replied.

"Yes, Hagrid has already informed me that Harry admitted to having trained in the martial arts. There is one more thing you should know, Severus. Harry has a familiar." Dumbledore would have told the man sooner, but this is the first time he had the time for a longer discussion with the man since he became Harry's head of house.

"What is it? It has to be small since no one noticed it so far." Snape asked, curious as to what sort of creature the son of James Potter attracted. 'Something incredibly flashy and useless no doubt.'

"I wouldn't call an adult striped asp small, Severus." Dumbledore said calmly, enjoying the sight of the man spluttering.

"You allowed him to bring something THAT dangerous in this school?" Snape shouted, an opinion many of the animated portraits of the former headmasters seemed to share.

"I assure you, Harry has complete control of his familiar. He is after all, a parseltongue." Dumbledore replied.

"You're telling me that the 'Boy-Who-Lived' is a parselmouth?" Snape exclaimed. Dumbledore simply nodded in response. "We're doomed."

Snape palmed his face and collapsed in his chair. His whole world had turned upside down the moment that blasted rag shouted out 'Slytherin'.

* * *

Before anyone knew it, Halloween rolled in, and the numerous decorations only added to the atmosphere.

"Hey Millie, have seen Hermione, she's not at her table." Harry turned towards Millicent as they were enjoying the Halloween feast.

"She's in the girls' bathroom. Weasley was teasing her after Charms class and she's been crying ever since. I went to talk to her, but she said she wanted to be alone for a while." She replied.

"I see. Well, we'll talk to her tomorrow." Harry shrugged. He didn't agree with Hermione's decision, but he didn't want to pry just yet.

Suddenly, professor Quirell, the DADA teacher rushed in, a look of terror on his face.

"Troll… in the dungeons… thought you ought to know." With that, he passed out.

Panic ensued at those words. Fortunately, Dumbledore managed to calm them down.

"Prefects, escort your Houses back to their dormitories." Dumbledore ordered.

"He's mental; our dorms are in the bloody dungeon." Malfoy grumbled, but still followed the prefect.

"Harry, Hermione doesn't know about the troll." Millicent reminded him as they walked away.

"This way, then." Harry led her through the Hufflepuff students, where Neville noticed them and joined in, and the three of them rushed towards the lavatory.

They had just reached the door when they heard a scream from the inside. They rushed in, only to be met with a cloud of horrible stench. It was the sight before them that stopped their hearts, however.

Hermione was huddled in the corner, pale and wide-eyed as the troll stood before her, club raised high, ready to smash her to paste.

"Sen'eijashu." Harry reacted instantly, shooting a pair of snakes that wrapped around the club and arm. Flooding his body with chakra, he pulled back, retracting the snakes as he did. This caused the troll to flip backwards and his club to strike an empty stall instead.

"Kanashibari." Harry caught the troll's eyes and put his hands in a gesture, freezing the troll in place. "Millie, Neville, get Hermione out of here, I can't hold this for long." His shout broke their stupor, and the two rushed to drag the catatonic girl away from the bathroom.

They stopped at an empty classroom, and were joined by a heavily panting Harry a minute later.

"That took more out of me then I thought." He managed to catch his breath after a few minutes.

"What exactly were those spells, Harry?" Millicent turned towards him with an expression that demanded answers.

"I'd like to know that as well." Hermione joined in, still pale but no longer shivering.

"It's a long story. It all started with…" Harry sat down as he began his tale.

AN/ As you can see, I've made some changes from the original story. For those of you who read Discovery, the pairings for Harry and Hermione will stay the same, while Neville might pair with Millicent, or maybe someone else. Either way, I haven't decided. Also, I added Millicent to the shinobi team. If anyone guesses which Naruto ninja she'll emulate, you get a virtual banana cream pie with whipped cream :)


	5. Chapter 5

Well, the chapter is finally finished. Some of the scenes were a sudden inspiration, but I liked them enough to integrate them into my plans for the story. Hope you all enjoy it. The end of year one comes up next and it should be exciting.

**Chapter 5**

"That's incredible. You managed to do all those things just by imitating a Muggle cartoon?" Millicent was quite surprised at what Harry managed to accomplish.

"Well, it wasn't easy, and there's still a lot of things from the show I've been unable to do." Harry shrugged.

"I wish I could do that." Neville sighed sadly.

"Who says you can't? As long as you work hard, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to." Harry smiled encouragingly at him.

"What about us, Harry?" Hermione looked up, eyes burning with fire.

"Sure. Meet me back here tomorrow at five and we'll start training." Harry's words caused their eyes to widen in shock.

"Five in the morning? You're mental." Millicent snapped.

"If you want to get good at this, you'll have to work hard. There are no shortcuts with this. Besides, I already get up at five already for my own training. We should go Millie, before the prefects get worried about us." Harry led his housemate out of the classroom and towards the dungeons.

* * *

"I am glad you are alright, master. I was worried the troll got to you." Acheron slithered up to Harry once he was in bed and had his curtains pulled.

"You noticed it, huh?" Harry hissed as he started to gently scratch the snake's head.

"Yes. I was hunting rats in the dungeons and I noticed the smelly turban man when he let it in the castle." Acheron replied.

"I see. That is interesting news, Acheron. I believe you just earned yourself a mouse and a bird for tomorrow." Harry grinned at the gleam in the snake's eyes.

"Thank you, master. A little lower, please." The snake hissed in contentment as Harry's hand moved.

* * *

"So, what's the first thing you're going to teach us?" Hermione asked once they met the next day. The trio was extremely sleepy, if the frequent yawns were any indication.

"First, you need to learn how to draw out your power. Form this hand sign and try to pull on your power, draw it out and let it flow throughout your whole body." Harry showed them the basic Ram seal. "It might take a while, but don't get discouraged. And whatever you do, don't get frustrated. You need to stay calm and clearheaded at first." Harry grinned.

"What are you going to do?" Neville asked.

"Work on chakra control and my hand to hand combat." Harry grinned and formed a cross seal. Immediately, a second Harry appeared. With a smirk, both walked up the wall until they were upside-down on the ceiling.

"Keep working on it, guys. You'll never make it if you keep staring at me all the time." The two Harry's above them gave them a cheeky grin and started sparing, ignoring the trio beneath them.

Much to their frustration, it took three days before they managed to get a feel for their inner chakra. Surprisingly, it was Neville who managed it first. Spurned by his success, not to mention some advice from the boy, the girls managed it a couple of hours later.

"Congratulations, everyone. I knew you could do it." Harry gave them all a big grin once they demonstrated the ability to consistently draw on their chakra.

"It would have taken us longer if it wasn't for Neville." Hermione grinned at the boy who just shrugged in response.

"Well, we can proceed to the next step, then. In order to get better chakra control as well as more stamina, you all need to improve your physical condition. We still have two hours left, so you can start with twenty laps around the classroom." The room was roughly a hundred meters around, so it was not a short distance. The trio grumbled, but obeyed nonetheless.

Huffing and out of breath, the trio collapsed before a grinning Harry.

"That's enough running. Now, do twenty jumping jacks, ten squats, ten pushups, and twenty crunches." To motivate them, Harry did the exercises along with them.

In the end, the trio were tired, sore all over and glaring daggers at their still fresh as a daisy instructor.

"Well, I guess that's enough for a start. Let me show you some warm down exercises. Then you can go shower before classes." A loud groan was his sole answer.

* * *

The weeks rolled by rather quickly in a frenzy of training and study. The benefits of shinobi training in their magical education quickly became visible to the trio. Thanks to the rigorous physical training, they didn't get tired as easily when traveling through the castle and it seemed that their magical power had started to grow as well. This was a slow process, so the trio had no trouble adjusting to this. Harry, in the meantime still tended to overpower any spell he cast, which was a fact that kept bullies away from him. Other then the increase in power, practicing the complex hand signs for ninja techniques also increased their dexterity. Harry also let them borrow some of his weapons so they could practice that until their chakra levels grew strong enough to practice jutsu safely.

"Damn, I still can't figure it out." Harry, who was showing Neville how to improve his aim with shuriken, turned in surprise at Hermione's outburst.

"Figure what out, Hermione?" Harry walked up to her as she stashed a piece of parchment back into her bag.

"Nothing special, Harry. I was just trying to figure out who let that troll in and why. With all the training we've been doing, it slipped my mind at the time, but it's been nagging me these past few weeks, and I have to know." She sighed.

"You should have just asked me. Acheron told me who it was that same night." Harry grinned as Hermione slapped her forehead.

"So, who was it?" She asked impatiently.

"Quirell. Acheron saw him let it inside the castle, but didn't follow him because he felt it better to warn me." Harry replied.

"Why would he do that?" Neville had trouble imagining the stuttering and incompetent Quirell capable of such a feat.

"He obviously wants something, and I guess it has something to do with the corridor on the third floor that Dumbledore warned us about." Millicent added her own two knuts to the discussion.

Their research into the third floor and what it hid took a backseat to their training once they discovered that just behind the door lay a massive Cerberus. It was a very dangerous beast, and it also had roughly the same resistance to magic as a dragon. Even a Killing Curse was more likely to piss it off instead of killing it.

* * *

Before the trio knew it, the Christmas holidays were upon them, and all but Harry had left Hogwarts.

Deciding to put the time he was alone in his dorms to good use, he decided to explore the castle a bit. He struck gold on his second night as he noticed the Weasley twins sneak into what he discovered were the Hogwarts kitchens.

There was a host of house elves in there, and they were more then willing to offer him a wide variety of treats. Harry took advantage of their effort, and while he was sampling the food they gave him, he also engaged a couple of them in conversation. With some quick thinking, Harry not only had information about every secret passage in the castle, but one elf also mentioned a very special room on the seventh floor.

Since the night was still young, Harry decided to check it out. Walking past the wall three times, he was a bit surprised when a simple wooden door appeared. When he opened it, though, he froze in awe at the sight before him. Inside was a simple classroom, however, lining the walls were several shelves with books and scrolls, and one wall was completely covered with all sorts of weapons.

And on top of it all, sitting behind the teacher's desk was the Chuunin teacher from the Naruto series, one Umino Iruka.

"Come in, you're just in time for your tutoring." The man gestured to a desk in the front.

"I think I found my favorite part of this castle." Harry commented to himself as he walked up and sat down for his lecture.

The other good surprise during the holidays was his first ever Christmas presents. Hermione had sent him the first two volumes of the Naruto manga, while Neville got him a silver dagger. It was built for practicality, not decoration, and looked rather plain. However, it was very sharp, and could be used both for combat as well as potions preparation. Millicent had sent him a ninja outfit she saw in a Muggle costume shop.

He laughed a bit when he saw what it was, but with some spell work on it, it might be useful in the future. There was one last gift that had no sender, and at first, Harry was wary of opening it, but once he did, all he found was a strange cloak that when he put it on, made him invisible.

Over the holidays, Iruka helped him cover the gaps in his basic shinobi education, which included some theoretical knowledge, survival training, trap making, basic swordsmanship and also the knowledge on how to make explosive tags.

"Your jounin sensei will continue your education. You've learned all you needed to know from me." Iruka informed him on the last day of the break.

"Thank you for your help, sensei. I'm sure my friends will benefit from your help as much as I have." Harry bowed in respect to the man. He discovered that the people the Room of Requirement created could not use magic or chakra when he asked Iruka to demonstrate a technique, but they could still tell him how to do it, or what he was doing wrong.

* * *

When Harry's friends returned from their vacation, Harry wasted no time in taking them into the RoR for their training.

While the trio was working under Iruka's tutelage, Harry began training with Mitarashi Anko. She was a very skilled jounin ninja who also had the ability to summon snakes, and was therefore a logical choice for him.

She started teaching him the Snake taijutsu style first, informing him that advanced ninjutsu and even genjutsu were used in conjunction with it during combat.

She also informed him that while she knew most snake based techniques, only her master Orochimaru knew the most advanced moves. When he heard that, Harry was feeling quite conflicted. Orochimaru was a vicious criminal with no regard for human life, but on the other hand, he was also a ninja genius that could teach him a great deal.

Still, according to Anko, it would be years before he could even attempt techniques of that level, so the mental debate was a moot point at the moment.

Hermione brought a new moral debate when she asked Iruka about methods to enhance oneself.

Iruka informed them that with the use of certain medicines as well as medical techniques or even seal-based augmentation, one could greatly improve himself, but there were risks, depending on the method. Some medicines were quite harmless, and Iruka told them that every ninja village had their own blend of drugs that were used by every one of their ninja so that they can achieve the maximal benefit from their training.

The dilemma for the quartet came from the knowledge of advanced drugs, as well as medical and seal-based enhancements. Certain methods could give them a lot of power, but the risks were great as well. The big question was, where to draw the line?

For the moment, they decided to just use the standard supplements for the moment, and research the more advanced stuff if the need ever arose for them.

The medicines gave them a good, but slow overall boost to their system as they started the treatments. Finding their bodies responding better to the intensive shinobi training, the quartet threw themselves in their training with renewed intensity until they spent almost their whole free time in the RoR.

* * *

"Harry, I've been thinking, and I think it will be a good idea to test ourselves a bit." Millicent commented as the three of them finished the test on the basic Academy ninjutsu. They still had a lot to learn about theory and other ninja skills, but they had a good, solid base.

"What did you have in mind?" Harry asked. He too had advanced a great deal during his weeks under Anko's tutelage, and he greatly improved his control over the Kanashibari, as well as learning how to use Mud Clones and the Senei'jashu, a technique that allowed the user to shoot out one or two special snakes from their sleeve that could be used for both attack as well as capture.

"We go for a little walk in the Forbidden Forest. Evading the centaurs and everything else in there should be a good test." Millicent grinned. She was still shy on occasion, but her training was quickly pulling her out of her shell, especially after Hermione and her learned several small nameless techniques from that were developed especially for kunoichi. Their regular use would cause great improvements in a girl's appearance over a period of several years.

It made sense for such techniques to exist, since kunoichi could hardly be masters of seduction if they didn't have the looks to match.

"As long as we don't go too deep, I don't see why not." Harry shrugged. He too felt bored just training. A real environment with real risks was just what they needed to break the monotony.

* * *

It was a very excited group of children that sneaked out of the castle that night and into the Forbidden Forest.

They moved quickly, weaving through the old trees, and sometimes even on them, elated at the freedom of running free with nothing but the wind in their face.

They noticed a few centaurs moving here and there in the forest, and they did their best to evade them, since they didn't know how much contact they had with the school, and they didn't want the teachers to know they were in the woods in the middle of the night.

"Harry, what's that?" Neville paused in his jump, hanging horizontally on the side of an old oak tree when something silvery caught his eye.

"Shit." Harry dipped his finger in the fluid and sniffed it carefully, only for his eyes to widen in shock and he rushed to a nearby puddle and washed his finger very carefully.

"It's unicorn blood. Don't touch it, when it's violently spilt it carries a powerful curse." Harry was very glad he had read about that fact in a book on magical creatures.

The trail quickly led them to the source of the blood. A large unicorn was slowly pushing through the brush, trying to escape the one that harmed it. Its right front leg was broken, and there was also a long gash on it. It stopped when it sensed them, lowering its head and brought its horn to bear, but it calmed somewhat when it saw them.

"We have to help it." Hermione said firmly and pulled out a roll of bandage. Since they were often practicing with sharp blades, small cuts were a fact of life for them, so they took to carrying bandages with them until they managed to learn medical techniques or healing spells.

The others also gave her their bandages, and while Hermione and Millicent began bandaging the unicorn's wound, Harry and Neville cut a pair of strong, straight branches to be used for a splint.

"This will hurt, but we're trying to heal you." Harry and Neville approached the unicorn carefully, as they rarely allowed human males to approach them. The unicorn seemed to understand his intention if not his words, and let Harry and Neville grab its leg.

The setting of the bone caused the unicorn to release a scream of pain, but the two boys managed to set the bone successfully. In a minute, they had made a splint for the unicorn, and it gave them all a grateful look.

That was when things went wrong. Harry suddenly clutched his head as his scar burst in agonizing pain and a shadowy robed figure burst from the brush and headed straight for them.

Despite their shock and fear, the trio each pulled a kunai and launched them as hard as they could at the dark figure.

Hermione's kunai missed, while Millicent's made only a glancing cut. Neville's however struck true and buried itself in the figure's chest. It let out an inhuman shriek and rushed away.

"What the hell was that thing?" Harry was breathing heavily as he stood up. Half his face was stained with dark silver blood.

Before they could say anything, the unicorn turned to him, and breathed onto his face and hands, then moved and breathed on the hands of the others as well.

The blood that was still on them slowly turned from dark silver to a sparkling, bright silver liquid. The unicorn gently nudged Hermione's hands towards her mouth with its head, repeating the movement several times.

"I think it wants us to drink it." She turned to the others, then, after the unicorn nudged her again, she raised her hands and licked off all the blood from her hands. Immediately, she felt a rush of energy wash over her, and from what she saw, it was the same for the others.

Harry's reaction was different, though. When he licked off the blood from his hands and what he could get from his face, he collapsed again, clutching his scar. This time, however, black tar like puss began to ooze from the scar and it didn't stop until a thin trail of silver showed, tracing the scar exactly. When Harry wiped his face clean, his scar was barely visible, and he felt completely reborn.

"Thank you." Harry bowed deeply realizing that the unicorn had done something very important for him.

* * *

It was then that they heard several centaurs approaching and the quartet decided that it was a good time to leave.

"Harry, what do you think the blood did to us?" Hermione asked nervously.

"I don't know. I can tell you this, though. Whatever attacked the unicorn is either working for Voldemort, or was Voldemort himself. He did give me the scar, and it reacted when that thing came close." Harry said with a frown once they snuck back into the RoR.

"I thought he was dead." Neville shivered.

"I guess he didn't die completely. Either way, now that whatever that black stuff was that the blood pushed out of my scar, you won't believe how light and clear my head feels. Also, I feel like I have a lot more energy." Harry replied.

"I feel stronger too. Do you think our chakra pool has been increased by the blood?" Millicent asked.

"I've never read about something like this happening. Every book I've read that mentions unicorn blood says that drinking it inflicts a terrible curse on you. I guess willingly given is the opposite. A blessing." Harry mused.

"Well, I for one am happy that you suggested this, Millie. We might have never found the unicorn otherwise." Neville gave Millicent a big grin.


	6. Chapter 6

Well, I finally managed to complete this chapter, and with it, we enter into the second book. I apologize for the delay, and I hope you like how this turned out.

**Chapter 6**

The group was relaxing in the RoR, celebrating the end of their exams, when Acheron slithered in and towards Harry.

"Master, the smelly turban man went through the door you had me watch." The snake informed him. The snake was an ideal sentry, since he could hide easily.

"Alright guys, Quirell is making his move. I say we go after him." Harry turned to his friends.

"I agree. I want to know what this is all about." Hermione stood up, while Neville and Millicent just nodded.

* * *

When they reached the forbidden room on the third floor, the Cerberus that was guarding the trap door that lead further was already sleeping, under the influence of an enchanted harp. Harry quickly added a genjutsu that kept the beast hearing music, and using the wall climbing technique, they slid down the trap door.

"Is that what I think it is?" Harry noticed the mass of plant life bellow them and turned towards Neville.

"That's Devil's Snare, alright. A strong Lumos should clear us a path." Together, the boys pulled their wands out and cast the light spell, causing the nocturnal plant to pull away from the beams and give them a path to cross.

"Are those keys?" Millicent took a closer look at the strange birds that were fluttering around the next room, and was surprised to see they were enchanted keys.

"I guess we'll need to catch the right one." Hermione pointed at several brooms sitting in a corner.

"Or, we could use my skeleton key." Harry grinned and pulled out a low grade explosive note. The others cleared away as he slapped it onto the lock. The note ignited just as he cleared away, and with a dull bang, blew the lock apart. The notes were surprisingly versatile, with the ability to alter the yield, concussive force and flame and heat produced in rather wide margins.

* * *

The next room was a giant chessboard. Not feeling like wasting time with playing, the quartet simply used the walls to their advantage and went around the enchanted chessmen and into the next room, where a horrific stench met their noses. A truly massive troll was on the ground, knocked unconscious.

"Lucky we won't have to take care of that." Neville commented. Despite their hard training and study, they had nothing that could take out an adult troll.

The fire that burst forth from both sides caught them by surprise, and it took them a few minutes before they stopped cursing at the fact they were caught so easily in the trap.

"There's a clue here, let me see if I can figure it out." Hermione picked up a piece of parchment that was sitting on the table with seven bottles of potion.

After several minutes, she turned towards the others.

"I got it. This bottle will allow us to go back, and this will allow us to go forward." She pulled a large bottle and a small vial from the row of seven.

"From the amount remaining, only one of us can go forward. We don't have a way of getting through otherwise." Millicent commented.

"I'll go. I'm the team leader." Harry took the vial and downed it. A shiver passed through his body, making him feel like he was dipped in ice water.

"Good luck." Hermione whispered.

"If I fail, do not let him leave alive." Harry gave them a firm look and walked through the black fire before him.

* * *

Quirell was there, standing before a large, strange looking mirror. It seemed he caught a reflection of Harry, because he turned around, and with a snap of his fingers, ropes appeared around Harry and bound him tightly.

"So good of you to join me, Potter. I was wondering how to thank you and your friends for what you did to me in the forest. Your meddling had set me back considerably." Quirell pulled a kunai from his pocket.

"Such an interesting weapon. I wonder how and why you have it, Potter. But it doesn't matter. After tonight, you will be dead, and my master will have his body back." Quirell grinned evilly and turned back to the mirror.

Several minutes passed with Quirell staring at the mirror, muttering to himself, and from his tone, Harry could easily see that he was having no success with whatever he was trying, and was quickly starting to panic.

"Help me, master." Finally, Quirell screamed out, and to Harry's surprise, a voice answered.

"Use the boy." The voice came from Quirell, but the tone was different, colder.

"Yes, Potter, come here. Look into the mirror and tell me what you see." Quirell dragged him to his feet and pushed him before the mirror.

His reflection stood before him, then, with a grin, it reached into his pocket, pulled a large, blood-red stone from it, and put it back. In that same moment, he felt a sudden weight drop in his real pocket. Somehow, he had gotten the strange stone from the mirror.

"What do you see, Potter?" Quirell snapped.

"I see myself standing over your master's cooling carcass." Harry snapped back. Quirell growled and pushed him away.

"Let me speak to him." The voice echoed again.

"But master, you're not strong enough." Quirell pleaded.

"I have strength enough, for this." The voice commanded, and Quirell began to unwrap his turban.

"Voldemort." Harry whispered as he saw the pale, snake-like face sticking from the back of Quirell's head.

"Yes, Potter. See what our last encounter reduced me to. A mere shade, having form only when sharing the bodies of others. But as soon as you give me the Philosopher's Stone, that will change. With the Elixir of Life, I can get a new body for myself." Voldemort's voice barely rose above a hiss, but Harry could hear him clearly.

"If you think for a second I'm going to give you the stone, you're mistaken." With that, Harry's hand flashed forward and a kunai was speeding towards Voldemort's face. To Harry's surprise, the blade stopped a foot from hitting, and just floated in the air.

"You think I would fall for the same trick again?" Voldemort sounded amused, but it was that same moment that the piece of paper tied to the kunai ring suddenly ignited.

Harry jumped back into the black flames, and the last thing Voldemort saw was Harry's lips forming the word "Boom."

* * *

The room shook lightly from the explosion, and Harry's friends were quick to pick him from the floor.

"Do you have the Stone?" Millicent asked, and Harry merely pulled it out of his pocket.

"And Quirell?" Neville asked.

"Voldemort was possessing him. He's gone." Harry said solemnly. On one hand, he was glad he stopped Voldemort's plans, but on the other, he had taken a man's life to do so.

"We should go, there were probably alarm wards somewhere around here." Neville spoke up. Harry nodded and the quartet quickly rushed away. Dumbledore passed them just as they got back up to the Cerberus, his face set in grim determination.

"Head back to your dorms. I'll return the Stone to Dumbledore." Harry told them, and the quartet scattered in seconds.

"Thanks for the password, Acheron." Harry thanked his familiar as he climbed the stairs to the Headmaster's office.

He paused for a moment to examine the room, and the sight before him was incredible. There were tons of portraits, strange devices scattered across the room, as well as all sorts of books. But what caught his attention was the scarlet and gold phoenix sleeping on a perch in the room. It was easily one of the most magnificent creatures he had seen.

Still concealed by both his Invisibility Cloak and genjutsu, he walked in and simply deposited the stone on Dumbledore's desk. He noticed the phoenix that was sleeping next to the desk wake up at the noise. The bird eyed the Stone with suspicion, and did not move his gaze from it. Satisfied that the Stone was safe, Harry left the office and quickly headed back to his dorm.

* * *

While Dumbledore was busy trying to figure out how Quirell ended up as a barbeque and how the Stone found its way to his office, Harry and the gang were enjoying the end of the year. Harry and Millicent ended up as the top students in their house, and Hermione and Neville were both the top of their houses as well.

The Hall was decorated in the green and silver of Slytherin, commemorating their seventh year as winners of the House Cup. Even though Gryffindor managed to snag the Quidditch Cup this year, the final victory went to Slytherin. Both Neville and Hermione toasted Harry and Millicent as they caught their sight. The Gryffindor students that did the same were far less graceful. Ron Weasley even gave him the finger when their eyes met.

Soon enough, their luggage was packed and they were back on the Hogwarts Express on their way back to London.

* * *

"Hello, Uncle Vernon." Harry grinned widely at the portly man. Vernon's face turned a shade redder, but he just grunted and turned towards the parking lot. Petunia and Dudley were already inside the car.

"Listen here, boy. When we get home, you'll give me all your freakish stuff so I can lock it away for the summer." Vernon turned back to face him as they stopped at a traffic light.

"I don't think so. You remember Acheron right? If you do anything I don't like, he'll pay you a little visit. And don't think that harming him will make you safe. I have stashes of his venom hidden away, and if he's harmed, some of it will find its way into you." Vernon paled like a sheet under Acheron's cold gaze as the serpent poked its head out of Harry's sleeve, but managed to compose himself enough to continue driving.

"What do you want?" Petunia turned towards him this time.

"Just stay out of my way. I will keep my room clean and I will work in the yard over the weekends, but in return, I expect to get as much food as I want. That is not negotiable." Harry snapped, seeing that she was going to protest.

Petunia looked like she was going to retort regardless, but one look at Acheron's striped head had her silenced.

The summer started off rather well for him. He had plenty of food, and enough free time to keep up with his training. He had decided to dedicate the summer to improving what he already knew, so he had no plans to learn new techniques.

However, the summer was quickly going downhill for him. Despite their promises, he had yet to receive a single letter from his friends, which was very odd, since he was expecting progress reports and questions about their training. Since he didn't have an owl, he couldn't send a letter himself, and summoning a coatl to carry one instead would draw too much attention.

* * *

"Harry, can I talk to you?" Vernon turned to his hated nephew as they ate breakfast. He hated having to beg the freak, but the snake that was constantly with him left him no choice.

"Sure." Harry nodded lightly.

"It's about the dinner party tonight." Vernon began, wondering how to ask this without getting bitten.

"You want me to stay in my room and keep quiet." Harry spoke before he could.

"Yes." Vernon exhaled the breath he was holding in.

"Alright. In return, you'll take me to London for my shopping. I'll let you know in advance, and no, you don't have to come with me." Harry replied.

"Agreed." Vernon was visibly relieved, and his mood seemed to improve as the day moved on.

About thirty minutes before Vernon's dinner guests were due to arrive, Harry returned from his training and headed right upstairs for a quick shower. To his surprise, a house elf was in his room, with Acheron wrapped around it. The elf was struggling with the serpent, but with Acheron's fangs pressed against its throat, it dared not attack him, and with Acheron's magic resistant body wrapped around the elf, it caused enough interference to prevent the elf from popping away.

"What are you doing here, elf?" Harry asked coldly. He knew all about house elves, and he knew that they rarely, if ever acted without their master's orders.

"Dobby has come to warn Harry Potter. He must not go back to Hogwarts." The elf spoke in a high-pitched, nervous tone.

"Acheron, who does he belong to?" Harry hissed, and the elf's already huge eyes widened to impossible size.

"You speak the serpent tongue." The elf wailed before Acheron squeezed him tighter to keep him quiet.

"The magic around him tastes like the white weasel boy." Acheron replied quickly.

"So, you belong to Malfoy. Did he send you here to trick me into not going back?" Harry smirked as the elf paled.

"Masters don't know I'm here. Dobby will have to punish himself very hard for coming here." The elf replied.

"So, Malfoy's dad is planning something. Interesting." Harry's musing was cut off when a thick wad of envelopes fell out of the still struggling elf. Instantly, all traces of humor vanished from Harry's face.

"You've been stopping my mail?" Harry growled.

"Dobby thought, if Harry Potter thought his friends had abandoned him, he wouldn't want to return to Hogwarts." The elf said weakly.

"If you ever come near me again, I will kill you. Acheron, release him." Harry said coldly. Dobby, who was quite used to death threats, realized that this was no simple threat.

"Dobby understands." With that, the elf vanished.

* * *

It took him all night to read the letters, including the special coded messages written in invisible ink on the backs of the letters. It was a bit too much for simple communications, but the group felt it was good practice.

When he was finished, he compiled replies for all of them, explaining the situation with Dobby and answering their training questions, having no choice but to summon three coatl to carry the letters.

"Harry, over here." Hermione caught sight of her friend as he was coming out of Gringotts.

Harry grinned and headed towards her, and after he was introduced to her parents, they went around the alley, stopping at various shops. Harry was busy chatting with the Grangers, explaining all sorts of facts about magical society. As a Slytherin, such knowledge was a requirement for him.

Finally, their trip took them to Flourish and Blotts, where they saw a sign that proclaimed that Gilderoy Lockhart would be having a book signing. A large crowd had already gathered inside and in front of the store, and it looked like getting their business done quickly would be a problem.

"We could be here for hours." Hermione's mother grumbled as she observed the crowd.

"Not necessarily. Follow me." Harry grinned and pushed through the crowd until they had a spot that was a little to the side.

* * *

"Stop." Harry grabbed one of the store workers, who seemed ready to snap in annoyance at the boy that dared to pull him to a stop, but one look at the cold emerald eyes and haughty face froze the words in his throat. The fact that the famous scar was prominent on his forehead didn't help much.

"How can I help you, Mr. Potter?" The man asked in a simpering tone.

"I need two sets of the books for second year. If I get them in five minutes, I may be inclined to tip generously." Harry smirked, and the man nearly knocked over two witches in his haste.

"That was interesting." Mr. Granger commented.

"Being rich and famous has its perks. Don't worry about the money, buy me lunch and we'll call it even." Harry grinned.

"It would be a pleasure." Mr. Granger grinned back.

The shop attendant returned with fifteen seconds to spare, panting under the weight of the books. Harry quickly paid him and added a three galleon tip for the man's quick service.

Thanks to Harry's help, they managed to get out of the store before the signing even began, and the quartet was able to enjoy a nice, relaxing lunch in the Leaky Cauldron.

The rest of the summer passed quickly, and Harry was again standing in King's Cross station, ready to board the Hogwarts Express together with Hermione.

* * *

Hermione went through with her mother, while Harry waited his turn with Mr. Granger. To their surprise, when Harry pushed the trolley towards the magical barrier that hid the portal to the Express platform, the trolley simply slammed into the wall. He was grateful that he wasn't running, or he might have caused a scene.

"What's wrong?" Mr. Granger asked with a frown as Harry was patting the now solid wall.

"The barrier has been sealed. Acheron." Harry hissed the last word, and the snake poked its head from his sleeve, startling Mr. Granger a bit, even though he knew about him.

"The gate is sealed by elf magic, master. The same elf that was stealing your letters." Acheron replied.

"Dobby." Harry ground out. It seemed the elf was more stubborn then he thought.

"Did you find out what's wrong?" Mr. Granger asked once Acheron returned inside the sleeve.

"Yes. A stubborn, meddling vermin is trying to stop me from getting to Hogwarts. Can you take me to the Leaky Cauldron?" Harry asked as Mrs. Granger emerged from the barrier, but when Harry tried it, it was completely solid.

"Sure. Won't Hermione be worried that you're not on the train?" Mrs. Granger asked.

"I'll send her a message." Harry assured her.

Since his trunk had a self-shrinking enchantment, he had no trouble using the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron to Floo to Hogsmeade, and from there, walk to Hogwarts. After explaining the situation to professor Snape, he was allowed into his new dorm to await the sorting. As he unpacked, he couldn't help but wonder what would happen this year, and why Dobby was so insistent on keeping him away.


	7. Chapter 7

The start of year two is upon us, and with it, a whole lot of interesting ideas. Hope you enjoy it, and I expect to read what you think about it.

**Chapter 7**

"So, according to this elf, Lucius Malfoy is trying to stir up some sort of trouble here?" Millicent frowned lightly as Harry explained his absence. The day after the arrival, they had promptly headed to the RoR to discuss their summer activities and any other topics of interest.

"He couldn't tell me what, but from his reactions, it was something serious. I'm still going to beat the tar out of the elf when I see him, but he did warn us, so I won't kill him." Harry grinned. "Let's move on to the topic of training. Now that you've mastered the basics, it is time to check your elemental affinities so we can choose a suitable secondary teacher for you."

While the trio had mastered the basics much faster than Harry had, he still had years of heavy training on them, and none of them had his raw power and chakra levels at this point in time.

"About that, Harry, I've been thinking about something. We know for a fact that Voldemort still lives, and it's pretty obvious that he will return eventually, and in the last war, he had a whole army. If we want to beat them, we'll need to be more than just wizards with ninja skills. We'll need an extra edge." Hermione began.

"Like what, Hermione?" Neville asked curiously.

"Things like special skills, unique abilities and bloodline limits. Harry already has something like that with his contract and the snake based techniques he's learning." Hermione replied.

"The snake contract is a unique artifact, Hermione. The secret of its making died with the Sumerian enchanter who constructed it. I've told you this before." Harry reminded her.

"I know that, Harry. What I am suggesting is, that like you, we also emulate a unique ninja. We all know you're planning on imitating Orochimaru in certain aspects. I simply say we do the same with other ninja." Hermione explained.

"Do you have any idea what you're suggesting? That would involve using drugs, medical techniques and seals on a completely new level. We're not ready to even learn the things necessary for such procedures." Harry snapped.

"We have years ahead of us to learn, but the decision must be made now." Hermione calmed him.

"I'm in. When the time comes, there are a few Death Eaters I'd like to settle a score with." Neville said firmly. The quartet knew all about each other, so they did not comment on this proclamation. They knew Neville was not the type to let vengeance consume him.

"Me too. This training has helped me a great deal. I want to continue it to its fullest." Unlike the brutish girl she was a year ago, the special kunoichi techniques had greatly improved her looks. A few more years would turn her into a real beauty. The techniques worked until the girl was around fourteen, which was more than enough to produce girls attractive enough to function as seducers.

"I don't think I need to say it, since I was the one that brought it up. We just need to see who is our best choice." Hermione grinned, and three sheets of paper appeared before the trio, since Harry had already determined he had strong wind affinity with a smaller aptitude for earth.

* * *

Hermione went first, and her paper didn't get soggy, but completely drenched, signifying a very strong affinity for water.

Neville went next, and his paper crumpled into a tight ball, informing them that he had very strong lightning affinity.

Millicent surprised them all when her paper split into two, then one side crumbled to dust, while the other burned up.

"That was certainly interesting. Well, do some research into who you wish to emulate, and we'll discuss this again then." Harry stood up and moved to the practice field. Training was after all, the only path to advancement.

* * *

Their Hogwarts education was not without problems as well. Gilderoy Lockhart was quickly seen as a joke by most students who understood even the bare basics of DADA, and each house took to solving this problem in their own way.

In Slytherin, the students took to self study, and in addition to that, paid, blackmailed or coerced year mates or older students into tutoring them. Harry and Millicent worked well together, and they had no shortage of willing helpers ready to explain troublesome concepts since nobody in Slytherin wanted to get on Harry's bad side, considering his sheer power compensated his lack of dueling experience. Harry, further improving his reputation and standing paid his tutors five galleons a lesson, thus cementing his position as the leader of the second year, and by proxy, the first year.

House Slytherin was a complex society, and in it, personal power, wealth and social standing were very important factors. A person like Harry, who not only had all three in abundance, but also worked hard to increase them, would easily become a very powerful person once he graduated.

Hufflepuff, as was their way, supported those struggling without the usual intrigue of Slytherin, while Ravenclaw had no problem overcoming the lack of quality instruction. In this house, relations were mixed, but generally much more relaxed than Slytherin. Hermione, for example, had taken a timid young girl named Luna Lovegood under her wing after she saw several older girls bully her. While only a second year, Hermione was easily one of the best students in Ravenclaw, and with her friendship with Harry, Millicent and Neville, no one in Ravenclaw messed with her.

Luna was not only a brilliant girl on par with Hermione, but she also had a rather unique view of the world, often mentioning imaginary creatures only she seemed able to see. At first, Hermione was annoyed by this, but as the days passed on, she realized that Luna was actually using these creatures and their characteristics as a way to encode what she was saying. It was a brilliant method, and decoding it would be a long and difficult task, since the only key was locked inside the safe she was trying to open, namely Luna's mind.

* * *

"So, what did you come up with?" Harry asked his friends, after they had spent several days researching famous shinobi from Naruto.

"Well, I spent a lot of time looking, and I finally narrowed my choice to two people. The Second Hokage and Hoshigaki Kisame." Hermione replied first. "In the end, I decided to go with Kisame, mostly due to the psychological factor and the fact he can breathe underwater."

"Alright. I'm getting a shiver trying to imagine a female Kisame, but that's your choice. Neville?" Harry grinned as Hermione gave him an indignant pout.

"It was a tough choice, since I had a lot of good choices, but finally narrowed it to Hatake Kakashi, the Fourth Raikage, and the Third Kazekage." Neville began. "Of the trio, I chose the Third Kazekage, since his power extends to more than just lightning manipulation. I have also decided to study puppetry in addition to the powers of the Third."

"Good choice, mate. I can already see you kicking ass and taking names." Harry gave Neville a big grin.

"For me, while I looked over a lot of good ninja, only one seemed to fit me. The Fifth Mizukage." Millicent explained.

"Wow, I'm starting to feel inadequate with just Orochimaru's techniques. That's why I have a surprise for you as well. I discussed the topic with my summons, and they said that it possible for me to learn how to harness nature energy. Of course, my chakra levels will have to be much higher before I can even begin, but it will be doable." Harry grinned at their surprised looks.

"Voldemort will be in a lot of trouble if he ever meets us again." Millicent grinned widely.

* * *

The next days marked the start of their training with their respective idols. Hermione was put on a grueling training regime by Kisame who also gave her recipes for a few more drugs designed to give her the size and muscles needed to master Kisame's fighting style. When she heard that by the time she was sixteen, she'd be about seven feet tall and built like a brick privy was not good news for a girl, but she swore that she would endure it.

Neville's training, while also having heavy physical aspects, was also focused on fine chakra control and mental agility. Until he received the Kazekage's magnetic ability, his training would be focused on lightning manipulation and the construction and use of puppets.

Millicent was put through the wringer as well, as the Mizukage was a rather pleasant woman, but also a harsh and demanding teacher. Her style was more acrobatic, but also very vicious, which was reflected in the techniques of her bloodline. The Mizukage of course, knew many techniques of the three individual elements, as well as a number of her two combo elements, and she was determined that Millicent would master them all.

Harry pressed on under Anko, learning more of the Snake style of combat, along with a few other techniques. On top of it all, the quartet was learning the methods that would give them the powers of their teachers. Harry actually had the least work or risk, since he didn't want to emulate Orochimaru completely, and thus needed only minor treatments to allow him to use the Face Stealing, Skin Shedding and Snake Body techniques. Orochimaru's Kusanagi and Rashoumon summoning were just special variants of the summoning technique. They were still very complex and chakra intensive techniques and it would be quite some time before Harry could attempt them, of course.

Of the four, Hermione would need the most work, since she also had to create Kisame's sentient sword Samehada.

* * *

This frantic pace was interrupted when Harry started hearing a strange voice coming from the walls. It took them a few days to realize that Harry was hearing a snake moving through the walls, but other than that, their searches drew a blank. Whatever the snake was, it was fast and seemed to know the school well.

"I'm going to post some sentries around the castle, I'd rather not risk Acheron with an unknown threat moving about in the castle." While they still had no idea what the hell was going on, Harry's summoned serpents would keep them well informed of any trouble in the school.

"Any luck, Harry?" Neville asked as they were discussing their watch of the castle.

"No. There's definitely something strange going on, but the snake sentries I've sent have proven of little use. Most of them have limited eyesight, since they rely more on their other senses to hunt. Excluding the people that have a reason to be out in the castle after curfew, as well as taking out couples out for a snog, I have a few leads, but nothing conclusive. Once I have a better clue, I'll send Acheron out. He's much more capable." Harry replied.

The first clue for the mysterious threat came right after the Halloween feast. As the students passed through a corridor on the second floor, blood-red letters greeted them on one of the walls, and from a nearby torch hung the still body of Mrs. Norris, the cat of the caretaker, Filch.

'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir beware.' Harry's eyes narrowed at that.

Using the general chaos of the scene, the group managed to sneak away.

* * *

"What the hell was that all about?" Hermione exclaimed. The whole thing about the Chamber of Secrets nagged her mind, just out of reach.

"It's an old legend about Salazar Slytherin. It says that before the other Founders chased him away, he made a hidden chamber in the castle, where he hid a monster that one day, his Heir would use to cleanse the school of the impure." Millicent replied. A lot of pureblood families grew up hoping that the legend would come true one day.

"There's a lot more to the legend then people know. Of course, not everyone has access to the same serpents that Slytherin once commanded." Harry smirked.

"Wait, so you know where the Chamber is located?" Millicent exclaimed.

"No, only that it exists. I know for a fact that Slytherin was not a pureblood fanatic. The whole thing was blown out of proportion a couple of centuries after his death. Slytherin merely wished to separate the worlds completely. He said that they should not allow Muggleborn to return to the Muggle world once they had been accepted to Hogwarts. He even offered one of his personal properties for a small town for that purpose. The other founders felt the idea was too extreme, so they opposed it." Harry began.

"So, how did he go from that to wanting to the madman he's known as today?" Hermione asked, eyes sparkling at this sudden and unique insight in magical history.

"He had a sister. She's conveniently omitted from the history books since she was a Squib, but she was also one of the best Potions Mistresses of the age. Unfortunately, a couple of years before Slytherin left Hogwarts, she was burnt at the stake. The grief drove him insane, and he blamed the Muggle world for his loss. That is as much I can say reliably, because the spirits broke his tie with the contract when he began breeding basilisks." The others went wide-eyed at the last part.

"Do you think that is what the monster in the Chamber is?" Neville whispered.

"It the most logical choice. However, a basilisk that old is not an easy target to take down. It could easily be a hundred feet by now. If we find the Chamber, I alone can face it, since the spirits can protect me from its gaze." The others immediately protested at that.

"I'm not budging on this one. Even a sideways glance, a single moment of inattention is enough to kill you. I won't let you take that kind of risk." Harry stood up, his face set in determination.

"Harry, we just want to help you. How can we do that if you're always ending up fighting alone?" Hermione walked up and gave him a light hug.

"I know that, and don't worry; there will be plenty of fights for all of us in the future. For now, just keep a sharp eye. Remember, if you hear hissing, close your eyes and stick to the ceiling until it passes. Use Substitution if you have to." The serious nature of the threat looming over the whole school was not missed by the quartet as they continued their training with renewed zeal.

* * *

"So, are you going the dueling club tonight?" Millicent asked as they and their house mates were discussing the notice about the club over breakfast.

"Sure, I'd like to see if they show us a professional duel." Harry grinned.

That night, the Great Hall was packed with people, standing into large groups divided by houses.

The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were chatting loudly, while the Ravenclaws and Slytherins were mostly whispering to each other. Harry stood together with Millicent, Daphne Greengrass, Tracy Davis and Blaise Zabini, while Draco was standing to the side with Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott and his bodyguards Crabbe and Goyle. Draco constantly tried to usurp Harry's position as top dog in their year, but even his donation of seven brand new Nimbus 2001 brooms failed to surpass the influence Harry had.

Harry felt a mixture of disappointment and excitement when he saw that the teachers who walked in were Lockhart and Snape.

"Well, at least we'll be able to see professor Snape mop the floor with the peacock." Harry whispered, and behind him, Tracy managed to cover her snort as a cough.

The two teachers stood at the raised platform in the middle of the Hall, getting into the standard dueling position.

To the great disappointment of the Slytherin students, Snape resolved the duel with a single Disarming spell.

Once Lockhart managed to gather his composure, he had the crowd divided into pairs to allow them to practice. Harry sportingly paired with Millicent and allowed her to practice her aim while they waited for their next instructions. The rest of the room however, erupted into chaos, and if not for Snape, things would have quickly gotten out of hand.

"Maybe I should show you students how to block unfriendly spells. How about some volunteers?" Lockhart spoke from back up on the platform.

"Potter, think you can handle this?" Snape smirked as a nervous wave passed through the hall as Harry climbed on the platform.

"Any volunteers to take on Mr. Potter?" Lockhart gave the students a grin, but no one stepped forward for a few moments, until Ron Weasley moved forward and onto to the stage.

"He's not so tough. I can take him." Ron gave Harry a glare. Even though they rarely spoke, Ron had made it quite clear he despised Harry for some reason.

"On three, boys. One, two, three." Ron started with an Incendio spell, but it was stopped when Harry almost lazily cast a Protego.

"You're taking this seriously. But is that all you got?" Harry smirked.

"Reducto." Ron roared, and this time, Harry's shield was broken, but the spell didn't have any power left afterwards.

"Not bad. You've been busy. Expeliarmus, Stupefy." Harry sent out the three spells almost instantly, and the first spell blasted Ron off the stage, the second slammed him into the wall, where he collapsed unconscious.

* * *

"You sure put the blabbering ginger in his place, Harry." Daphne commented as they walked back towards their dorms.

"He had it coming. He used a Reductor curse of all things. I couldn't let that slide." Harry shrugged.

"I wonder how a moron like him learned it in the first place." Tracy joined in.

"Who knows what goes on in that thick head of his? Just be careful around him, he's proven he knows dangerous spells and we all know he has enough poor judgment to use them." Harry warned his friends. While he didn't spend as much time or was as close as he was with Millicent and the other from the shinobi group, he still spent time with them, and didn't want them to get hurt.

AN/ I put a lot of interesting ideas here, and a lot of them will play a big role in the future chapters. And to those who might protest about it, Harry will master Sage Mode and will need to use it at a later date. As for the duel with Ron, there will be a lot more going on between the two, that was just a setup for future conflicts. For those following HP and the Lantrisi, expect a new chapter real soon.


	8. Chapter 8

It's been a while, but now that my exams have finally ended I can get some writing done. Hope you like how this turned out.

**Chapter 8**

The Christmas break seemed to come before anyone realized it, and a lot of students departed the school considering that since the petrification of Mrs. Norris, Colin Creevey of Gryffindor was petrified next, and following him, a Hufflepuff named Justin Finch-Fletchley was found together with an immobile Nearly-Headless Nick.

While Harry remained in the school, the rest of his friends all departed, leaving him alone with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and several older students in the Slytherin dorms.

"So, you don't know who's behind the attacks?" Harry looked up from his Transfiguration essay to see Malfoy talking to his cronies. This was nothing unusual, but something about the two halfwits struck him as odd.

So, when the pair rushed out five minutes later, he chose to pursue them, and managed to track down the pair to an abandoned classroom on the third floor, where he was surprised to see Crabbe and Goyle tied up in a corner while the pair he was following turned to the familiar forms of the Weasley twins.

"Well, that's interesting." The twins turned around, wands aimed at him, but their faces turned nervous when they saw who it was that had managed to track them. While they believed that they could subdue Harry, the fight was certainly going to be long, noisy and draw a lot of unwanted attention.

"So, what were you two doing in our dorms, using a restricted potion to do so no less?" Harry grinned widely as he walked in to examine his sleeping dorm mates.

"We were trying to find out who the Heir of Slytherin is." One of the twins admitted after a few moments.

"And you chose to talk to Draco about it. Your brilliance is staggering." It was easy to pick the sarcasm in that sentence.

"I don't suppose you know who the Heir is?" They asked him.

"And I should just volunteer such information out of the goodness of my heart?" Harry raised his eyebrow at them.

"What do you want?" Fred asked with a sigh.

"An exchange of information. I can start by telling you that whoever is behind is, they're not in my house." Harry sat down on one of the desks, and the twins followed.

"We don't know much. Malfoy was our best lead. He certainly acts like he could be behind all this." George replied with a sigh.

"Malfoy is a pompous, arrogant blowhard with more pride than sense. A lot of people would love nothing more than to beat the tar out of the little prick." Harry shrugged.

"I thought you two were closer than that." Fred was surprised at the revelation.

"Please. We just present a united front before the rest of the school. He can't stand me because I have more power, wealth and influence than he ever could amass." Harry grinned.

"Well, not everyone is the Boy-Who-Lived." George grinned.

"Tell me, how would you two like to make some quick galleon?" Harry said suddenly.

"We're listening." The twins replied as one.

"I'm well connected in Slytherin, and with Neville and Hermione in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, I have eyes and ears in those houses as well. Gryffindor however, remains a blind spot in my network. I'll give you five galleons a month if you pass on any information of interest to me." Harry grinned.

"You make an interesting proposition, my slippery friend. You have yourself a deal." The twins shook his hand eagerly, and Harry in return, pulled out five galleons and handed them the coins.

"A pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen. If there's anything I need to know, just put a note with a meeting place and date in the glove of the suit of armor next to the window across McGonagall's classroom." Harry grinned and walked away, happy that he managed to snag himself some contacts in Gryffindor, as well as getting a night free from Crabbe and Goyle's snoring.

* * *

"Harry, take a look at this." The group had all returned from their holidays, and had gone back to their training with the same zeal that they had from before the break.

"Interesting. It is certainly a very unusual item." Harry studied the small, leather-bound diary that Hermione handed him. It was a rather unremarkable item, bearing only the name T.M. Riddle on it, and a mark that it was bought in a Muggle variety store.

To their chakra senses, however, the book was anything but ordinary. The diary was so saturated with magic that their skin tingled when they held it.

"Where did you find it?" Harry asked.

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Apparently, Luna is friends with her, and took me there to introduce me. Someone had tried to flush it away, and it seems they aggravated Myrtle in the attempt, since the whole lavatory was flooded." Hermione replied.

"I see. I'll keep it with me to examine it for a few days if you don't mind." Harry put the diary in his book bag when Hermione gave her approval.

* * *

After a few days of working on it, Harry was forced to give up on cracking the diary's secrets, as all of his attempts were unsuccessful. Some more advanced spell might have given him the answer, but since he was only a second year, he didn't know any. Since it was probably a dangerous magical artifact, Harry usually carried it with him or kept it locked in his trunk.

"So Potter, spent time with Slytherin's monster lately?" Ron Weasley and a small group of Gryffindors intercepted Harry and his friends as they were traveling from the Charms classroom towards the dungeons for potions.

"Nice try Weasley, but everyone knows my family is not related to Slytherin. Now, go and bug someone else." Harry said after a few moments and began to walk away.

"Stay still when I talk to you, you blasted snake. Difindo." Ron whipped his wand and shouted the spell. It rushed forward and cut Harry's book bag, spilling its contents all over the floor.

Harry stopped and turned around to see the damage. His Charms book had a deep gash in it, nearly splitting the tome in two, while his inkwell had shattered and was currently soaking everything in black ink.

And resting near Ron's feet was the small, leather-bound diary that belonged to T.M. Riddle.

"What's this, then? Potter's diary?" Ron's face split with glee as he picked it up.

"Accio diary." Harry's wand snapped up and he had the diary in his hand before Ron could get a good grip on it.

"What is going on here?" Percy Weasley arrived in that moment, breaking up the crowd until only Ron and Harry's friends remained.

"Your brother was being a pest, as usual. There's something I'd like to talk to you about. Would you be able to come to the Slytherin common room tonight?" Harry turned to Percy, who nodded with a thoughtful look on his face.

While Ron's behavior was mostly amusing for Harry, the boy was insistent in pushing the boundaries until Harry had no choice but to react.

* * *

"Hey Potter, the Weasel's here to see you." Marcus Flint alerted Harry to his visitor and led the prefect inside.

"Thank you, Marcus. Follow me, please." Harry led Percy to his dorm, which was empty at this time.

"What's this all about, Potter?" Percy was both curious and confused.

"Your brother Ron has shown both great dislike for me as well as the willingness to use harmful or even lethal force against me. Last year, his attempts were amusing, but his behavior is rapidly getting worse." Harry began.

"I've talked to him about it, but he seems determined to antagonize you." Percy sighed. His brother was causing him a lot of trouble.

"Normally, I'd ignore him, but his outbursts are putting my friends in danger as well, and that I can't allow. Which is why I'd like to show you something." Harry pulled out a rolled up parchment from his trunk and handed it to Percy.

"This is real?" Percy was white as a ghost as he looked over the sheet. On it was a still active loan contract between his grandfather and Harry's grandfather for the sum of three thousand galleons. Considering the date and the inflation rate since, the payment due could have easily climbed to five thousand.

"It bears the Gringotts seal, doesn't it? You can keep that, by the way. It's a copy. The original contract is safe in my family vault." Harry grinned.

"This would ruin my family. My parents can't repay that much money." Percy exclaimed.

"Yes, five thousand galleons is a substantial amount, especially if paid at once." Harry shrugged.

"What do you want?" Percy sighed.

"Just one thing. For Ron to keep his big mouth shut and his wand in his pocket when we meet. I have no desire to harm your family, but if Ron can't control himself, I will inform the goblins to get my money back from your family." Harry said firmly.

"But this loan has remained unpaid for over eighty years." Percy protested.

"Only because my family never asked for it. Like I said, keep your brother in line, and everything stays as it is." Harry said calmly.

"Alright. You have a deal." Percy stood up with a sigh and pocketed the loan contract.

"I truly wish I didn't have to do this." Harry sighed as he escorted him out of the common room.

"Me too." Percy replied.

* * *

Harry's warning seemed to have a mixed result. While Ron no longer spoke or threatened him in any way, the boy's glares towards Harry had increased in both frequency and intensity.

Still, that was something Harry could live with, and continued with his life as he had so far.

A few days had passed since, and it turned out fate was determined to keep his life complicated.

"Hey, Bulstrode, you've seen Potter?" Malfoy called the girl over as she entered the common room.

"He was in the library the last time I checked. He said he was going to study until dinner. Why?" Millicent replied.

"Somebody got into our dorms and trashed his stuff. I think they were looking for something." Millicent's eyes widened in surprise.

"You're telling me someone got into our dorms and trashed Harry's stuff? Somebody sure has a death wish." She smirked.

"Sure looks like it. Abigail locked our dorm until Potter can verify nothing was stolen, so please let him know." Draco informed her.

"Sure. I'll go get him right away." She turned around and went out of the common room and towards the library.

Ten minutes later, the story had already spread though the Slytherin students, so when Harry walked in, the common room fell silent as a grave.

"Does anyone know who did this?" Harry said calmly. Silence was his only answer.

"Very well. Let's see what was taken." He nodded at the Head Girl, who simply turned and went to the second year boys' dorm.

* * *

His part of the room looked like a tornado had passed though. His trunk was empty and upended, but fortunately for Harry, whoever had trashed his stuff didn't notice the trunk had multiple compartments, which was good for him, since he didn't fancy explaining the weapons and the large stash of poison he had in there.

His bed, wardrobe and nightstand were ransacked as well, and their contents were spilt on the ground.

Noticing his ink bottles, Harry grinned at having the foresight to place an impervious charm on them.

"Well, anything missing? I would start with your money and work my way through." Abigail pointed at the large money bag that was thrown to the side, spilling a generous amount of coins on the floor.

"Money's all here, as are all my clothes and books. Would you be so kind as to repair these for me? I'm not as good with books as I am with clothes." Harry pointed at the several torn books, and Abigail deftly repaired them with a few flicks of her wand.

"So, nothing was taken?" Abigail asked.

"No. Everything's here, down to the last sheet of spare parchment." Harry replied.

"I guess somebody was playing a joke on you. I can ask professor Snape to put up some wards for you if you'd like." She sighed in relief. Theft in Hogwarts was not something that carried a light sentence.

"That won't be necessary, but I appreciate the offer and your speedy reaction." Harry gave her a grin and walked back to the common room with her. He caught Millicent's eye and gave her a subtle signal.

Five minutes later, they were in the Room of Requirement.

"So, was anything taken?" She asked.

"Just Riddle's diary. Lucky for me, they didn't open any of the other compartments. I have some books and potions supplies I'd rather not explain, not to mention all my weapons." Harry grinned.

"So, there's more to the damn diary than we managed to figure out, huh?" Millicent commented.

"Sure seems so. It's unlikely it was a Slytherin that took it, since they've seen me with it in the common room several times, and no one had tried to steal it. I think that when Weasley cut my bag, whoever the thief was, saw that I had it." Harry mused.

"That's the most likely scenario. What are you going to do about it?" Millicent asked.

"Nothing. Whoever the thief was, they were damn lucky Acheron wasn't in my room at the time. He would have bitten them for sure, and that would have caused me a lot of trouble." Harry sighed.

"Where is the scaly worm, anyway?" Millicent grinned.

"Patrolling the castle, of course. My scouts still haven't found a lead, unfortunately." Harry sighed.

* * *

A few more days passed without incident, then out of the blue, another student was found petrified, a Ravenclaw fifth year Prefect named Penelope Clearwater.

"Something wrong Hermione?" Neville noticed that Hermione was unusually agitated as she walked in the RoR that same evening.

"You can say that again. I was almost killed today by that bloody basilisk sneaking through the castle." She growled.

"What happened?" Harry turned towards her when he heard that.

"I was in the library, together with Penelope, when I heard the bloody thing coming. I used Kawarimi with a suit of armor and then used Shunshin to get out of the library wing. Penelope saw the basilisk's reflection in the armor and got petrified." It was obvious Hermione was feeling bad about what happened to the girl.

"I know you feel responsible, but there was nothing you could have done. You probably saved her life with that suit of armor." Harry tried to comfort her.

"Please tell me you found where the bloody thing is hiding." Hermione snapped.

"No, but I got a clue just today, from Malfoy of all people. He said that the last time the chamber was opened fifty years ago, a muggleborn girl died. I asked the Bloody Baron, and while it took some coaxing to get it out of him, I found out that Moaning Myrtle was that girl." Harry grinned.

"So, she might know where the entrance is?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"It's possible. Talk to her and tell me what you find out. Don't do anything else." Harry gave her a firm look.

Hermione spoke with Myrtle the next day by sending a Kage Bunshin to do so. What she learned was most surprising.

"The entrance is there, in the bloody loo. I saw an engraving of a serpent on one of the taps, and I'm sure it responds to parseltongue." Hermione informed her teammates.

"That is excellent news. It will take me time to prepare for the battle, though. A basilisk that old will not be an easy opponent even if its eyes won't affect me." Harry said grimly.

Basilisks were built to take an insane amount of punishment and keep on going. You could compare them to tanks, in a way. Their hide was almost impervious to magic, as well as more mundane attacks. There was a legend of a century old basilisk shrugging off a Muggle cannon shot in the seventeenth century. What Harry was about to face was far stronger than that. This did not give him much confidence, but he was still determined to get it done.

"We also got exams coming up as well." Neville pointed out.

"Don't remind me." Millicent sighed.

* * *

The next couple of days were spent in a frenzy of preparation for Harry, who was busy sharpening kunai and shuriken and making explosive notes like crazy.

"I really wish I had done the rituals for the Kusanagi sword. With that, the basilisk would have been easy to kill." Harry sighed. The legendary Grass Cutter sword was quite impressive for its unassuming name. Capable of cutting practically anything but a handful of other legendary weapons and items, it was Orochimaru's signature weapon, and something Harry was most eager to get. On top of its sharpness, the length of the blade could be altered at will, making it a truly dangerous weapon.

"I wish I had Samehada too. Then I'd turn that bloody snake to mincemeat." Hermione grinned evilly at the thought. The Sharkskin great sword was a sentient weapon that devoured chakra and was covered in razor sharp scales. The blade didn't cut, it shaved through its victims.

"We'll get them eventually." Harry shrugged.

Suddenly, Millicent burst through the door, looking frantic.

"You need to get to the Chamber now. A student has been taken down there." She shouted.

"Do you know who?" Harry asked as he gathered his equipment.

"No, but I hope she's still alive." Millicent shivered.

"Me too. Well, wish me luck." With that, Harry rushed out of the Room of Requirement and towards the legendary Chamber of Secrets.


	9. Chapter 9

My deepest apologies for the massive delay, but I had a massive block for a while, and only recently did I recover the inspiration to continue. This also brought me an idea that will make this story significantly longer, but I won't reveal that surprise until much later.

**Chapter 9**

Harry managed to sneak to the lavatory without being spotted, but there were a few close shaves with a few of the teachers who were running around the castle. It was apparent the teachers were trying to find the missing student, but from the looks on their faces, Harry could tell the adults had little hope for success.

"Open." Harry hissed at the tap marked with a serpent that Hermione told him about and stepped back as the sink split apart and revealed a dark tunnel sinking into the floor.

He hesitated for only a moment before he jumped down and slid down the slimy pipe deep beneath the castle.

He landed onto a huge mass of bones in some sort of a cave. From the look of them, some of the bones were centuries old.

When he saw the massive shed skin just around the bend, he almost turned back. It was over fifty feet long and wider than he was tall, and from its dryness when he touched it, it had been there for decades, if not more. Just how big was the basilisk now?

However, he managed to steel his resolve and push on. His honor and duty as the snake summoner was on the line here. He could not falter.

Not far from the hide was the entrance to the chamber itself, barred by a massive circular iron gate. A pair of serpents were placed on each half of the door.

"Open." Harry hissed again, and the two serpents became animated and moved around, vanishing into the frame of the door as it began to open.

* * *

The Chamber itself was quite an impressive sight, with tall pillars carved into the shape of snakes, holding torches glowing with green flame. Right before him on the other side of the chamber was a massive statue of Salazar Slytherin carved into the stone wall.

The whole ambience was indeed quite impressive and intimidating. As his eyes continued to scan the room, he saw the person he was here to rescue, and a soft groan escaped his lips as he recognized the girl.

"Figures she'd be a Weasley. I swear the whole family is like a permanent itch." Harry grumbled as he approached the girl and nudged her with his foot. "Hey, wake up, Weasley."

"She won't wake." A soft voice echoed from a darkened part of the room, and Harry cursed inwardly. In his annoyance, he completely forgot that there was likely another person in the Chamber.

True enough, a tall boy around sixteen or seventeen walked out of the shadows.

"So, you're the Heir of Slytherin?" Harry raised his eyebrow in curiosity. The boy was wearing Slytherin colors and a prefect badge, but he didn't recognize him.

"Yes I am." The boy smirked only for that smirk to fall when something moving incredibly fast passed through his head. The kunai vanished somewhere in the shadows behind the boy.

"Damn, I was hoping that would have taken care of you." Harry grumbled as he dropped his hand back.

"So, there's more to you that meets the eye. Where's your little pet?" Harry made it a point to look around the room.

"Are you so eager to die, Potter?" The boy asked. "I shall oblige you then. Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."

As the boy turned and said the last part at the massive statue of Slytherin, its mouth opened, and from the darkness inside it, a black shape began to emerge.

'Oh, you've got to be kidding me.' Harry resisted the urge to scream at the gigantic serpent before him. Its dark green scales glinted evilly beneath the eerie torchlight.

"Are you scared, Potter? Afraid to look my little pet in the eye?" It was apparent to Harry that the Heir was Tom Riddle. How it was possible, he didn't know, but it didn't matter at the moment. He had more pressing issues, namely the ungodly huge snake before him.

* * *

"Why would I be scared about that?" Harry smirked as he and the basilisk locked eyes. Tom looked in glee at the sight, waiting for the inevitable collapse of the boy.

Then, Harry blinked and Tom felt his jaw slacken in shock. "How did you survive the gaze?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Harry stuck out his tongue. He was after all, still a kid.

"Kill him." Tom's hiss was filled with rage. The basilisk lunged forward, but Harry had already jumped to the side and reached into the equipment pouch on his back that was hidden beneath his robe. Useful slits in the sides allowed him access, but at the same time, their design kept them almost invisible unless he used them.

He pulled out a pair of kunai with a long wire trailing between them. On the wire, spaced evenly were thirty explosive notes.

As the basilisk was still trying to locate him, Harry took careful aim and flung the whole construct at the serpent.

One kunai sailed above the snake, while the other went under. Before they could slide off, the tags ignited and exploded with a massive amount of force and flame.

The entire Chamber shook from the explosion, and some rubble fell from the ceiling. Fortunately, the blast hadn't caused a cave in, which would have been bad since Harry had determined that the Chamber itself was somewhere beneath the lake.

Finally, the smoke from the blast cleared to reveal the basilisk. The area around the explosion was scorched a dark black and still smoked lightly, but from what Harry could see, it had only pissed off the basilisk.

* * *

"Come on, that's so unfair." Harry grumbled. While he might be able to summon a serpent big enough to take down the basilisk, he would need to pour all his chakra into it, and he'd be useless if the summon failed to kill the basilisk, not to mention the damage they would cause to the Chamber itself.

His thoughts were broken when the basilisk caught his scent and rushed him, mouth open wide and fangs glinting with venom. Harry dodged by running up the carved pillar and jumping off to the one next to it after which he landed on top of the basilisk and slapped several tags on top of its head.

The force of the explosion slammed the basilisk into the ground, and a strong shriek of pain emerged from the cloud of smoke, right after the enraged creature shout out and headed for Harry again.

"What does it take to kill you?" Harry roared as he jumped around the room like a rabbit on crack, peppering the gigantic snake with shuriken, kunai and explosive tags.

More than once he bemoaned the fact that he didn't have the Kusanagi or stronger elemental techniques. He believed a strong and sharp enough wind natured attack would have been able to kill the basilisk.

"Just die already." Harry screamed as he launched a kunai with three tags tied to its ring. To his great fortune, it was that same moment that the basilisk decided to rush him again. The kunai sailed through the air and lodged itself into the basilisk's mouth.

* * *

The creature shrieked in pain before its head was engulfed in a ball of fire. A moment later, a loud thud shook the Chamber. When the smoke cleared, the basilisk was still, blood leaking from its mouth. The explosion had apparently destroyed its brain.

"That's all I had to do? I can't believe I didn't do that in the first place." Harry had a very strong urge to make a clone and tell it to beat the stupid out of him.

"You'll pay for that, Potter." Tom growled as he raised Ginny's wand in order to finish Harry off personally.

That was also the moment Harry saw the diary still clutched in the Weasley girl's hand.

With a jumping roll, he dodged the killing curse Tom cast and as he flipped over the girl to avoid another, he snatched the diary.

"You don't have the means to destroy that, Potter." Tom grinned. He knew how heavily that diary was protected.

"Let's find out, shall we?" Harry held out two fingers on his right hand and began to move them in a small circle.

"Kaze no Yaiba." Harry tossed the diary in the air with his left hand and swung his right arm, two fingers still extended.

For the briefest moment nothing happened then a bright line of light bisected Tom as he released an inhuman shriek. The diary fell on the floor in two halves, both of them gushing ink in torrents.

"A wind sword can cut through anything." Harry smirked evilly. It was an advanced technique that he could only do once since he was still learning wind nature manipulation. It also used a lot of chakra because of it.

* * *

He noticed that the Weasley girl started to stir so he cast a sleeping genjutsu on her.

Once he put the two halves of the diary in her pocket, he picked her up and headed out of the Chamber.

Now, while using chakra to climb the slippery pipe was easy, having to do it while dragging the dead weight of a girl not much smaller than him was no easy task.

It took over ten minutes to emerge in the lavatory after he reopened the entrance that had closed in the meantime.

Moving quickly, he took the girl to the hospital wing and removed the genjutsu. Without it, she would wake in a few minutes.

Then, he rushed to the RoR to get cleaned up and get some rest. Despite the hardships of the evening, a small smile graced his lips. He was advancing rather well.

* * *

Dumbledore was rather stumped as he pondered the events of the last twenty-four hours.

Under the coercion of Lucius Malfoy the School Governors had him removed from Hogwarts for a brief period which ended the moment the youngest Weasley was kidnapped and taken to the dreaded Chamber of Secrets.

Then, just as all their searches ended without fruit and he was facing the terrible duty of telling Arthur and Molly that their daughter was dead, Madam Pomfrey rushed in his office, telling him she found the girl, alive and well in the Hospital Wing.

A quick talk with the girl revealed nothing other then the sinister cause of all this trouble. He studied the two halves of the small harmless looking book with horrified fascination. He knew immediately what it was, and it also revealed to him how far his former student had sunk.

On top of it all, the method of its destruction also troubled him. The cut side of the halves was impossibly smooth, without even the slightest tearing of paper. Dumbledore could think of no spell or enchanted blade that could cut with such insane sharpness.

Add to that the events of last year, when he found Quirell and the Mirror of Erised blasted into bits, and the false Philosopher's Stone resting on his desk and you came to a conclusion that made the old man feel quite grim. There was someone or something in the school that was behind all this and it made him nervous.

Unaware of the old man's troubles, the shinobi team had gathered to discuss their plans for the summer.

* * *

"Why don't we all meet up in Diagon Alley in August? We'll be able to do all our shopping together and catch up properly." Hermione suggested, and everyone agreed with great enthusiasm.

This time, Ravenclaw managed to break Slytherin's streak with the House Cup, even though once again Gryffindor managed to snag the Quidditch Cup from Ravenclaw in a rather close final match.

"Is that you, Hermione? I can't believe how much you've grown." Harry turned and saw the Grangers meet their daughter as he walked towards his own relatives.

Now that Hermione had hit puberty, the drugs and enhancements Kisame told her to use would have her shoot up like a weed. Already she was eating twice as much as anyone else in her house, and was taller than any of the boys in their year.

Harry had decided to take care of elemental manipulation for the summer. He had already started with wind manipulation, and planned to continue with it along with earth manipulation. While he would once again not learn any new techniques, this training was a very important foundation for the more advanced techniques, and could be used for combat on its own.

Wind was the most offensive element, with its ability to cut practically anything, while earth was more defensive. If he pushed earth chakra through his body, he could increase the toughness of his body and at the same time increase his physical strength.

He was fully expecting a calm and relaxing summer when once again Fate decided to spoil his expectations.

* * *

"The public is warned that Black is armed and extremely dangerous. A special hot line has been set up, and any sighting of Black should be reported immediately." Harry's eyes narrowed as he heard the special news bulletin. He remembered the name Sirius Black from a book describing the pureblood families of Britain, but didn't know more than that.

That bit of news was quickly dashed from his mind as Vernon revealed that his sister Marge was coming to visit. That immediately soured Harry's good mood.

Marge was an even worse bigot than Vernon was, and she took great pleasure in making Harry miserable. Before Harry started training, he dreaded her visits, but with genjutsu on his side, life became easier for him. It was even amusing imagining Marge shouting at an imaginary Harry while he was far away outside training without having to listen to her toxic tirades.

"Harry, since Marge doesn't know about you-know-what, we told her you're going to St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys." Vernon said with all the apprehension of a man handling a live bomb.

To his surprise, Harry laughed, and it only served to make him even more nervous.

"I really underestimated you, Uncle. You have some pair to spread that around." The laughter died so quickly that Vernon for a moment thought he imagined it. Harry's voice cut through him like a frozen blade.

"I had to tell her something." Vernon stammered.

"I do not appreciate such lies, not when they involve me." Harry didn't really care much about the issue, but he didn't want his family to know that.

"I'll make it up to you." Vernon begged. Meanwhile, Acheron decided to see what the commotion was all about and he poked out of Harry's collar. Seeing the serpent only made the man pale further.

"You will sign this first. I'll take care of things with Marge. She'll have a nice visit and leave unaware of how things are really here. But it will cost you, Vernon." Harry smirked.

"But I signed your ruddy permission slip." Vernon protested weakly.

"That was just to convince me to bother. What I want from you is something else." Harry leaned back lazily in his chair. He could see the suspense was killing his uncle. "I want you and Dudley to go to your physician and ask him to prescribe you a diet to bring you both down to healthy level."

This shocked all three Dursleys. What the hell was their freaky nephew playing at?

"We both know how much you like food, Vernon. A diet is an ideal punishment. And to make sure you stick by it, I will randomly add some venom to all the junk food around the house. Wouldn't want you to fall to temptation, would we? Oh, and I can easily do it again and again if you replace it, so if I were you, I wouldn't waste my money." Harry laughed again and walked away.

Despite all the bad blood between them, Harry still considered them his family. He may never like them, but he had no desire to see them dead.

* * *

Marge was quite shocked when she arrived to find her brother and nephew were on a diet. The rotund woman tried all she could to get them to quit, but all her protests fell on deaf ears. All the two Dursley men had to do was see Harry's smirking face behind Marge for them to realize that breaking the diet would lead to bad things.

"See, they can be trained." Harry grinned as he played with his familiar. He was holding a mouse above the snake and waited for Acheron to make a move. It was a game they both enjoyed, Harry for the reflex training, Acheron just for the scare it gave his food. Of course, the same could not be said for the mouse.

"They surprised me. I guess they are better then pigs, if only a little." Acheron hissed and snapped up, missing the mouse but managing to nick Harry's pinky.

"Close, my friend, but not close enough." Harry grinned and lowered the mouse again. After a couple of more close snaps, Harry let him have the mouse.

"Are you going to return here after your shopping trip tomorrow?" Acheron asked once he had settled down to digest the mouse.

"I think Vernon deserves to get a break from me before the stress kills him. I'll get myself a room at the Cauldron for the rest of the summer." Harry grinned. Soon enough, he would be back to Hogwarts and into one more year of training and adventure.


	10. Chapter 10

Another chapter done, and with it, we enter third year.

**Chapter 10**

Vernon was more than overjoyed to drive Harry to London once Harry told him he would not be coming back until the next summer, and once he got himself a room at the Leaky Cauldron, he proceeded to Diagon Alley. Since he was early, he had some time to talk with the goblins in person about his little secret project.

"Harry, over here." Hermione waved him over as he walked out of Gringotts. Neville was already standing next to her with his grandmother.

"Have you seen Millicent?" Harry asked once he greeted everyone.

"Yes, she went into the bank a few minutes ago." Hermione replied.

"Should we wait for her or head out?"

"You two can head out. I said I would meet her at Madam Malkin's, and we can all get together in Flourish and Blotts once you two finish at the apothecary." Hermione replied.

"Alright then. See you later." The group divided, each going towards their intended shop.

"So, do you know about Sirius Black?" Neville asked, knowing that Harry wasn't a subscriber to the Prophet.

"I saw something about him on the Muggle news, but it was not very informative. Why did you bring him up?" Harry frowned.

"Because, he's the only person in history to escape from Azkaban." Neville replied. Harry released an impressed whistle.

"What did he do to end up in such a pleasant resort?" Harry smirked.

"He killed thirteen people with a single curse. There's talk he was His right-hand man in the war and…" A discrete cough from his grandmother broke Neville's words.

"Sounds like a right pleasant chap. Looks like one too." Harry mused as they passed one of the many wanted posters spread around the Alley. He was surprised he didn't notice them when he was walking towards Gringotts earlier.

"What electives are you taking this year?" Harry changed the topic.

"Care for Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. You?"

"Care and Ancient Runes. They looked the most interesting to me."

"Say, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. Are you interested in investing in a company?" Harry grinned widely.

"That would depend on the company, Mr. Potter. What is it, and how profitable is it?" Mrs. Longbottom answered for her grandson.

"It's a shipping company, and it is very profitable, I am currently netting eight hundred galleons a month in solid profit. If you invest, I can easily double, or even triple the profit, depending on how much you invest." Harry replied. The old woman sounded very impressed. That was indeed solid profit.

"How much capital do you need?" She asked. The two of them retreated to a corner of the apothecary to talk while Neville paid for their purchases.

"Fifty thousand is the amount I need at the moment. If you invest a hundred thousand, I see a monthly profit of three thousand from the company." Harry replied.

"That is a rather large amount, Mr. Potter. Can you guarantee a return of the investment?" Mrs. Longbottom asked.

"I would be more than happy to discuss the details with you later today. Perhaps around tea time?" Harry inquired.

"That will be acceptable. You may floo from the Leaky Cauldron to Longbottom Manor. We will be expecting you." She smiled softly.

"Hello, Millicent. How was your summer?" Harry greeted his house mate right outside Flourish and Blotts.

"Rather pleasant, actually. We spent a month at the south of France." True enough, she was sporting a rather nice tan.

When they entered the store, the owner was busy whacking a snarling, snapping book in a cage in an effort to get it out.

A small doze of killing intent from the four shinobi wizards quickly calmed the enchanted books. After all, they couldn't waste time while they waited for the man to subdue the books.

A very relieved man quickly rushed to take their orders, and fifteen minutes later, the group walked out once more.

* * *

Harry and Neville headed towards Madam Malkin's this time, while the girls headed to the stationary store to pick up quills, ink and parchment for everyone. They agreed to meet at the Magical Menagerie in half an hour. Hermione wanted to buy a pet, a desire that Millicent expressed as well.

"I'd like a box of mice and a box of birds, please." Harry was running low on food for Acheron, and took the opportunity to restock while the girls were browsing.

"Here you go, laddie. Did you ladies find something that caught your eye?" Harry put the boxes in his trunk and turned to the girls.

Millicent was busy stroking the feathers of a large peregrine falcon that looked absolutely massive on her arm, while Hermione was busy petting a large orange cat.

The owner was quite pleased that Hermione bought the cat called Crookshanks, and even gave her the carrier and a self-cleaning litter box for free.

"Well, now that we finally gathered everything, what do you say we have some lunch?" Mr. Bulstrode suggested. A few minutes later, the group was happily eating a delicious lunch in the Leaky Cauldron.

* * *

The following afternoon, Harry pulled out his best robe and after he pocketed a few documents in an expanded pocket, flooed over to Longbottom Manor.

"So, would you be willing to elaborate on your offer, Mr. Potter?" Mrs. Longbottom began once the three of them were comfortably sipping tea.

"Certainly. Now, ever since I learned of its existence, I have been carefully studying my family's holdings. I have significant assets at my disposal, but I am far from the richest wizard in Britain. So, I decided to improve my financial situation with a good investment. Over the last year, I have done careful research and made what I felt was the best decision. I founded a shipping company that would conduct regular shipping between London and Alexandria." Harry began.

"You do know that there are four other companies doing the same?" Mrs. Longbottom frowned.

"I am aware of it, yes. However, unlike them, I am not moving my cargo with an enchanted Merchantman. I am using a Muggle freight airplane to bring it into the country and then cargo trucks to get it to my warehouses. The airplane is a gigantic Russian monstrosity that can carry a significant amount of cargo. I can ship the same amount of cargo in a week that any other two companies move in a month. With your investment, I will be able to buy two more airplanes and ship cargo from Beijing and New York on top of this route." Harry grinned.

"That is indeed a most clever solution. What are the operational costs?" Mrs. Longbottom suppressed the grin. She was familiar with the owners of a few of the shipping companies, and pissing them off alone would have been worth the expense.

"The most expensive part was hiring an enchanter to place a rechargeable replenishment charm on the fuel tanks. Other than that, the only cost is the salary for the airplane crew and the warehouse staff, but I already accounted the expenses when I gave you the expected profit margins." Harry replied. All those lessons on protocol and diplomacy Iruka drilled into him really helped him get this business on its feet.

"You have yourself a deal, Mr. Potter. Here's a bank draft for a hundred thousand galleons for your company. I look forward to a long and profitable partnership between our families." Mrs. Longbottom grinned as she handed him the draft.

"Likewise, Madam. I will arrange it so that you receive a quarterly report from the company administrator." Harry informed her. Unlike in the Muggle world, in the magical world there were oaths that ensured executives ran the company honestly, so owners could hire staff without worry of embezzlement.

The rest of the evening was filled with casual small talk and Harry left the Manor with great satisfaction.

* * *

The next day however brought some unwanted complications for Harry. It seemed the Weasley family had just arrived from Egypt where they were on holiday, and had decided to stay in the Leaky Cauldron for the last few days of summer.

Ron at first tried to antagonize him, confident that Harry couldn't do a thing to him outside of school with the underage restriction in place.

That illusion lasted only several minutes when Harry deftly grabbed his hand and with a twist had him kissing the wall.

"You're a fool if you think I'll endure your stupidity outside of school, Weasley. After all, I don't have to worry about detention here." Harry smirked as he whispered in his ear.

Ron's parents walked in to find their son held against the wall by Harry, and Mrs. Weasley immediately started screaming at Harry to release her son.

Harry complied, only for the pudgy woman to turn to him and start to berate him in a very loud voice about his rude and unacceptable behavior.

"Shut up you banshee." Harry normally strived to be polite, but the woman had the gall to berate him as if she had a right to it. They were already drawing a crowd when Harry subdued Ron and now with Mrs. Weasley shouting at him, everyone in the pub was looking at them.

Mrs. Weasley's face turned a deep red and she seemed ready to really start tearing into him when her husband placed a hand on her shoulder.

"That's enough, Molly. I apologize for this, Mr. Potter. We will not bother you anymore." Arthur gave a pointed glare at his wife and son, both of whom looked down in shame. Arthur Weasley was normally a rather pleasant and calm individual, but he was not a man to cross when angry. Also, when the man took into consideration how much money they owed Harry, he would be a fool to antagonize him.

"Apology accepted, Mr. Weasley. Have a good day." Harry grinned inwardly. It seemed the Weasley patriarch was a reasonable individual, at least.

True to his word, they stayed out of his way after that, and soon enough, he was boarding the Hogwarts Express. He found Hermione and Neville already sharing a compartment, and a minute later, Millicent joined them as well.

* * *

"So, what are our plans for this year?" She asked once she was settled in.

"We'll start working on the preliminary medical treatments for the modifications. We'll need to prepare our bodies before we can proceed with the integration of the abilities." Harry replied.

"We will also continue our training. Now that we all have at least a basic understanding of nature manipulation, we can spend more time on elemental techniques." Hermione added.

"Harry, what was that whole thing with my grandmother? Since when do you own a shipping company?" Neville asked.

"I've been working on it for months. It is quite possible that Voldemort will return one day, and he will start a war. If we want to win, we'll need funding, and I plan to leave my descendants more than a handful of gold." Harry shrugged.

"That's a pretty good idea, Harry. Thanks for including me as well." Neville grinned.

"Well, no offense to the girls, but you're the only one who could afford it. Millicent is well off, but her family can't spare the amount that would be necessary." Harry shrugged.

The talks quickly moved on to casual discussion about various topics that would have made anyone listening in back away very, very slowly.

The quartet engaged in a long discussion on the pros and cons of kunai, shuriken and senbon, along with defending their favorite traps, coupled with discussion on various lethal and non-lethal poisons. Of course, they had taken the precaution to prevent anyone from overhearing them.

"We can't be there yet." Harry frowned as the train started to slow down and stop.

The group sat calmly as the lights went off and noise began to echo throughout the train as passengers tried to find out what was going on.

A minute passed before their compartment door opened, and they saw a tall, dark figure wearing a black robe peer in the compartment. It drew in a long, rattling breath and the animals in the compartment shivered. A moment later, the figure glided away.

"Was that a Dementor?" Harry asked with a frown.

"I believe it was." Millicent replied.

"I propose we declare my Shadowed Mind genjutsu as the coolest technique ever." Harry jumped up, pumping his fist in triumph.

"Sit down, you. You can gloat later." Hermione palmed her face with a sigh. Harry was normally very calm and serious. This behavior cracked only in two instances.

The first was when he was playing with Acheron, and the second was when he was learning new techniques.

Finally, the train started to move again, and soon enough, everyone had gathered in the Great Hall, but the usual exuberance of the students seemed somewhat subdued, no doubt due to the Dementors.

* * *

"Welcome!" Dumbledore stood up once the Sorting was complete.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast. As you are no doubt aware from their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is a host of some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business." Dumbledore warned them all about the dangerous creatures currently patrolling around the castle grounds.

"On a happier note, I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our staff this year. First is professor Lupin, who will be taking over the DADA classes." Dumbledore introduced the man. He was hardly impressive, looking tired and worn out, wearing a set of rather threadbare robes. Still, Harry reserved his judgment on the man until after their first class. As he examined Lupin, his eyes also fell on Snape, who looked at the new teacher with a look of utmost loathing.

'I wonder if there's some history between the two?' Harry thought. He was hardly Snape's favorite student, but his exemplary grades and behavior kept him in his Head's good graces.

"As to our second new appointment, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his game keeping duties."

The large man stood up to enthusiastic applause from a large portion of the school. Once everyone had calmed down, the food appeared and the feast began.

Finally, the feast was over and the students were led to their respective dormitories.

"…and finally, if you have any trouble with finding your classes or the classes themselves, you can come to one of the prefects, or some of the younger student tutors, like Harry Potter or Millicent Bulstrode over there." The new prefects took the first years to the side once they were in the common room. Hearing his name, Harry gave the nervous kids a grin and a short wave as he and Millicent warmed themselves by the fire. A new year would start the next day, and he for one looked forward to it a great deal.


	11. Chapter 11

Another chapter done, and with it starts third year. Enjoy and review.

**Chapter 11**

The next day, Harry and Millicent both walked in the Great Hall together after their morning practice and immediately dug into a hearty breakfast.

On the Ravenclaw table, Hermione was talking to her friend Luna between bites. Neville walked in moments later.

"So, what classes do we have today?" Millicent asked as they examined their schedules.

"I got nothing at the moment. You?" Harry replied.

"I got Divination. Why my mother insisted I take it, I'll never know." Millicent grumbled.

"Well, who knows, you might get some use out of it. I'll save you a seat in Transfiguration." Harry grinned and stood up.

Transfiguration passed quickly, with McGonagall starting the year with a lecture on Animagi, and with a warning that such complex magic was not to be attempted without a great deal of training and more importantly, supervision.

* * *

"I can't believe they have that oaf teaching classes. Wait until I get through with him, he'll beg to be fired." Malfoy bragged to his small group as they walked outside for their Care for Magical Creatures class.

"You'll do nothing of the sort, Malfoy. Step one toe out of line in this class and you'll deal with me." Harry walked ahead and stopped before the blond. He didn't care much about what others did or said to him, growing up with his relatives gave him a rather thick skin, but he didn't tolerate people picking on others.

"I'm not afraid of you Potter." Malfoy sneered.

"Then you are a fool, Malfoy. I can make your life very unpleasant if you cross me, so if I were you, I'd be careful." With that, Harry's group of Slytherins walked away.

"You'll have to show him his place soon. No other year has two leaders." Daphne pointed out.

"The issue will be resolved this year. He's just lucky I'm too busy to deal with him. I can count on you guys to stand by me when the time comes?" Harry turned.

"Do you even need to ask?" Blaise grinned.

When the students reached Hagrid's hut, the man led them around the hut and to a large paddock on the edge of the forest.

"Everyone gather around the fence, make sure you can see. Now, open your books…" Hagrid began.

"How do we open them?" Malfoy called out, raising his book that was tied with rope.

"Just stroke it, Malfoy." Harry grinned and raised his own book, already open.

"Well done, Mr. Potter. Take ten points to Slytherin." Hagrid beamed as the class proceeded to open their books.

"Alright, you all have your books, so let me get the creatures for today's lesson." Hagrid grinned and walked away.

* * *

"Wow." One of the Gryffindor girls exclaimed as Hagrid returned with a dozen hippogriffs. They were large, majestic creatures with the hind half of a horse and the front of an eagle.

"These are hippogriffs. Beautiful, aren't they?" Hagrid beamed.

"Now, the first thing you need to know about them is that hippogriffs are very proud creatures. Never insult one, it may be the last thing you do." Hagrid began the lesson.

"When you approach them, always let them make the first move, since it's only polite. Stand before them and bow. If they bow back, you can approach them. If they don't back away fast since they could attack you. Now, who wants to give it a try?" Hagrid finished his explanation and turned to his class.

"I'll give it a try." Harry stepped forward. Hagrid grinned at him and unchained one of the hippogriffs. "Let's see you get on with Buckbeak."

Harry walked up to the hippogriff and stared him right in the eye and gave him a respectful bow.

A moment later, Buckbeak also lowered its head into what passed as a bow for it.

"Well done, Mr. Potter. You can approach him now. Go on, pat his beak." Hagrid exclaimed. Harry grinned and did just that. Buckbeak seemed to enjoy the ministrations as he moved his head into Harry's hand as he stroked him.

"Alright then, I reckon he'll let you ride him now. Let me help you get on." Hagrid approached them and helped Harry on Buckbeak's back. Once Harry was settled and comfortable, Hagrid slapped Buckbeak's hind quarters and the beast rushed forward, taking into the air with powerful beats of its wings.

"That was fun." Harry grinned once he was back on the ground. Flying always gave him a thrill, and even though he didn't want to play Quidditch, he was pretty good on a broom.

The Slytherins were encouraged by Harry's success, while the Gryffindors refused to let one of the snakes get the better on them and soon enough, the class was divided around the paddock, each working with their own hippogriff.

Harry watched them lazily from his perch on one of the fences, discussing the creatures with Hagrid and asking questions about them. The large man was very pleased by his interest and answered his questions in great detail.

"Accio Malfoy." Harry suddenly snapped up, wand waving before him as the blond was pulled towards him. The last thing before Malfoy saw before slamming into the ground was the flash of long talons before his face.

"I believe professor Hagrid made it clear that you should never insult a hippogriff, Malfoy. You're lucky I was watching you." Harry grinned as he stood above the blond.

"Quite right, Mr. Potter. Take another ten points for your vigilance. Mr. Malfoy, in the future, follow my instructions carefully." Hagrid's smile had vanished and he walked in the paddock to calm the agitated Buckbeak and tie all the hippogriffs back.

"Class dismissed. For the next class, read the book's chapter on hippogriffs and we'll discuss the best way to care for them." Hagrid dismissed them.

* * *

"I warned you not to cause trouble, Malfoy." Harry turned to the blond as the Slytherin students headed towards their common room.

"Shove off, Potter." Malfoy turned away, only for his body to lock up as Harry petrified him and started to levitate him.

Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Parkinson pulled their wands out, but found that they were already at wand point by Millicent, Blaise, Tracy and Daphne.

"Let's talk, Malfoy." Harry walked into the common room, followed by the floating Draco. A couple of prefects noticed the procession, but didn't react.

"Potter, nothing lasting or visible." One of them turned to Harry, who nodded in acknowledgment.

"I'll give you four a simple choice. Just mind your own business and I'll leave you alone." Harry turned to Draco's supporters. Nott accepted at once and was allowed to leave. Crabbe and Goyle were tied too deeply with Draco and his family to walk away, and Pansy had started to develop feelings for Draco and remained as well.

"Very well." Harry released Draco, but still held him at wand point. Draco glared, but knew it was pointless to resist. Everyone knew that challenging Harry to a duel was foolish. He had power and speed, as well as the skill to use them well.

"Again, my offer is simple. You will no longer work against me, and I'll leave you alone. If you don't, then I recommend you reserve yourselves a bed in the Hospital Wing, because you'll spend a lot of time in there." Harry smirked.

"When my father hears about this, Potter…" Malfoy sneered before he was once again petrified.

"You think I'm dumb enough to leave evidence lying around if I go after you? No Malfoy, you'll never be able to prove I was responsible. Be smart for once in your life and take my offer. Blink once if you accept." Harry gave a wicked sneer as Malfoy paled a little. After a minute, the blond blinked and Harry released him. A moment later, he and his cronies walked away.

"Well, that was unpleasant. Hopefully he won't cause us any trouble." Harry sighed as he sat down on his bed.

"We'll see. If he persists, I might have to teach him a lesson that will sink better in his thick skull." Harry shook his head.

* * *

"Harry, I've been meaning to tell you this since we met in Diagon Alley, but I felt it best if I waited until we're back here. It's about Sirius Black." Neville turned to his friend once they were back in the RoR.

"What about him?"

"Well, your father and Black were good friends in school. They were dorm mates and all. Your parents even named him your godfather." Neville began, and Harry felt an unpleasant sensation at the pit of his stomach.

"When your parents went into hiding, they used the Fidelius charm, and Black was their secret keeper."

"He sold them out. He betrayed my parents to Voldemort." Harry hissed out. His narrowed eyes looked like emerald ice.

"What are you going to do about him?" Millicent asked concern clear in her voice.

"If he shows his face in Hogwarts, we'll capture him. I want to interrogate him myself. Only then I'll decide how slowly I want to kill him." Harry growled and moved on his training with Anko with renewed zeal.

* * *

"Follow me, everyone. Today will be a practical lesson." Professor Lupin walked into his classroom, still looking as shabby as ever, but now, his face looked a bit better than the first time they saw him.

He led them through the corridors to the staff room, where the only person present was Snape, who left quickly after he directed a glare at Lupin.

As professor Lupin approached an old wardrobe at the end of the room, it began to shake, making several people jump back.

"Nothing to worry about. There's just a boggart in there." Lupin grinned as several students gave him incredulous stares.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks, I've even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice."

"Now, who can tell me what a boggart is?"

"It's a shape shifter. It takes the shape of what it thinks frightens us most." Millicent answered the question.

"Precisely. When I let it out, it will take the shape of what it believes will frighten us most. Now, the charm to repel a boggart is simple, but it requires a mental aspect as well to work properly. You must force the boggart to assume a form you find amusing. The incantation is Riddikulus." Lupin continued.

"Now everyone line up." Lupin instructed them. As the students shuffled around, Harry somehow ended up first in line. Lupin seemed nervous, but after a moment, turned around and opened the wardrobe with a flick of his wand.

As Harry took a few steps forward, the soft tinkling of small bells echoed from the shadows before a figure stepped forward. The first thing the students saw was a sandaled foot, wearing black pants that were hooked beneath the sandal, followed by a black robe adorned with crimson clouds. The figure was wearing a large straw hat with paper ribbons that completely hid its face. A pair of bells on a string hung from the hat and tinkled as the figure moved. As they stared at it, everyone wondered 'How is this frightening?'

Slowly, the figure raised its hand, revealing a pasty pale hand with nails painted purple and took its hat off, lowering it slowly.

* * *

Everyone paled in surprise as they saw the figure's face. Harry's face stared back at them, but it was very different. The skin was pasty white, framed by smooth, black hair. The eyes were lined with purple marks, with slit pupils. Their gaze was frigid, and anyone that looked into them shivered in terror.

The boggart Harry gave a sinister chuckle as his tongue snaked out of his mouth, impossibly long as he licked his lips.

"Riddikulus." Harry waved his wand and the boggart's clothes changed from the Akatsuki uniform to a geisha's outfit.

Chuckling a little at the sight, he turned around and walked to the back of the room, hiding how shaken he was about the experience.

The days moved on, and before anyone realized it, Halloween was right around the corner, and with it, the third years had begun to look forward to their first ever Hogsmeade visit.

The shinobi quartet spent the day just acting like the teenagers they were, exploring the various shops and browsing through their products, stopped at the Three Broomsticks for some drinks and visited all the notable landmarks, including the Shrieking Shack.

The Halloween feast that followed the trip was the perfect end of a perfect day, and Harry was looking forward to a nice, long sleep as they entered the common room.

His plans were dashed, however when professor Snape burst in and told them all to return to the Great Hall.

* * *

Harry saw that everyone was gathered there, and noticed the Gryffindors were huddled together, muttering about something. Ron even glanced at him a couple of times as they waited for an explanation.

"The professors and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle. For your own safety, you need to remain here." With a few flicks of his wand, the tables were moved to the side and hundreds of purple sleeping bags appeared.

"I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances and report any disturbance at once via one of the ghosts."

It didn't take long for word to spread about what was the cause for this unexpected event.

Sirius Black had attempted to force his way into Gryffindor tower, only to be stopped by the guardian portrait. The man apparently didn't like the painting's refusal as the canvas was badly cut up.

* * *

With a few hand signs, Harry weaved a genjutsu around him, which also alerted his team that he wanted to talk to them.

"What do we do now?" Hermione asked.

"We capture him, obviously. I wonder why he was trying to get into Gryffindor so badly?" Harry shrugged.

"The best way to get him would be to spread Kage Bunshin around the school. We all have the chakra for at least several." Neville added.

"That's a good idea. My summons wouldn't be able to recognize him even if they did encounter him. It's unlikely he'll try to get in again before curfew, so every day after dinner, we'll dispatch Kage Bunshin throughout the castle."

"I'll cover the dungeons. He might have found a hidden entrance that leads down there." Millicent offered.

"I'll cover the first three floors." Hermione had the most chakra, so she asked for the biggest area.

"I'll take the fourth and fifth floors, then." Neville took his share of the castle.

"I'll take the top two floors and the entrances to the towers. If you encounter him, subdue him and take him to the RoR, but make sure your clones keep him asleep until we get there. Once he's caught, we can then interrogate him." Harry finished.

* * *

The quartet began their nightly patrols the next day, with their shadow clones spread all over the school using wall walking, transformation and basic cloaking genjutsu to remain hidden from the few people who patrolled the school after dark.

Their efforts seemed in vain, however, since Black seemed to be biding his time after his failure, and hadn't made any attempts even weeks later. The days moved on without success, and soon enough, the Christmas holidays were upon them without even a whisper from Black around the school.

The holiday brought another surprise for Harry, as he discovered, with the gifts from his friends, that someone had also sent him a Firebolt broom. There was no card or anything to reveal the sender, and feeling a bit suspicious, Harry pressed his hand on it, slowly pushing his chakra into it.

A part of their training in sensing chakra was the ability to sense active chakra usage and the effect it would cause. In time, they noticed that this ability could be used to sense and recognize spells.

As his chakra brushed against the various enchantments, he was busy trying to determine their purpose, seeking any that were designed to harm the user, like a Hurling Hex, for example. Ten minutes later, he dropped the broom, not finding anything that wasn't supposed to be there, leaving only the curiosity about who would send him such an expensive gift.

He didn't have a broom himself, as he found that the school brooms, while not the best, were good enough when one wanted to fly around the grounds a bit.

Once he packed up everything in his trunk, he walked out of his dorm and into the common room. The quartet was very busy as they were preparing to start the preliminary treatments for their abilities after the holidays. They had been studying the techniques and preparing the medicines since they arrived, and if everything went well, they would have their chosen abilities by the end of their fourth year, after which they would just have to master them.


	12. Chapter 12

And another chapter done. Not much action in it, but things are slowly working up to the action.

**Chapter 12**

Several weeks had passed since the new term had started, and while there was still no sign of Sirius Black, the quartet busied themselves with their preparations.

Harry had relatively little drugs to take, as his changes didn't require any significant genetic alterations, but the other three were not so fortunate.

They each had to consume a large amount of pills and other medicines in order to bring their bodies to a state more receptive to the changes they planned. Some of the drugs were also there to prevent illness because of the changes.

"My appetite is shot to hell. I eat either too much or too little, and on top of it all, I also vomit from time to time. Do you believe that last night Padma asked me if I was pregnant?" Hermione grumbled.

"I know what you mean. The drugs are messing me up as well." Millicent commented with a blush, but didn't elaborate. After a few weeks of the treatments, she noticed that her body was changing a bit faster than before, and as a consequence, she now had the biggest breasts in their year.

"Well, I don't have any troubles with my body, but my chakra control is shot to hell. I have to work three times as hard on it just to keep it from deteriorating." Neville grumbled as that led to him being unable to progress on his training as much.

"Our bodies will adapt by the end of the year, and we'll be able to finish the procedures over the course of next year. In the meantime, we just have to do our best to cope with the changes." Harry reminded them.

* * *

Their search for Black was not nearly as successful, as March was rapidly approaching without a single trace of the elusive convict in the castle. It seemed that whatever the man was after in Hogwarts, he found it when he got in the last time, or he had given up.

"What the…" Millicent felt something crawl on her, and opened her eyes, looking down to her chest. Only her training stopped her from screaming as she found herself staring at a snake's face.

"My master summons you." The snake spoke with heavy hissing. Some of the spirits could speak human, as long as you didn't expect them to say anything complicated.

Millicent nodded and stood up, not even turning when the serpent puffed into a cloud of smoke.

"This better be important, Harry. You know I don't like getting my sleep interrupted." Hermione fixed him with a glare as she walked in the RoR right behind Neville.

"It is. My clones caught Black as he tried to enter Gryffindor tower again." Harry smirked evilly.

"You got him? Can we see him?" Millicent exclaimed in surprise. After all those weeks of memories of walking through the school, the quartet was pleased that it was not in vain.

"Right this way." Harry led them to a room to the side. Through a large mirror on the wall they could see a second room with Sirius Black sitting tied to a chair.

"Is he unconscious?" Hermione asked.

"Just a stunning spell. Hermione, you're with me. You two stay in here. I'm not taking any chances with this bastard." Harry turned to his friends.

* * *

"Rise and shine, Black." Harry grinned as the man shook off the aftereffects of the stunner.

"Where… James? It can't be." Sirius gasped as he saw Harry standing before him.

"Not quite Black, although I've been told I resemble my father." Harry shrugged.

"Harry?" Again, Sirius couldn't believe what was happening. Before he could say anything more, a large snake slithered out of Harry's sleeve and wrapped itself around his neck.

"Alright, Black. I have some questions I want you to answer. Don't even think about lying to me, because my friend will know if you do, and you won't like the results." Harry almost growled, thinking about what this man had cost him.

"You were named my godfather, which means my parents trusted you above all others. And yet, you decided to spit on that trust and sell them out to their worst enemy. Why?"

"I didn't betray them. I wasn't the Secret Keeper." Black said at once, shocking the quartet.

"Acheron." Harry hissed, hoping the man was lying.

"He speaks the truth, master." The snake quickly dashed those hopes.

"Why does everyone think you did it, then?" Harry asked, still feeling suspicious of the man.

"I suggested the plan. We knew that someone close to us was a spy, and I offered myself as a decoy. Even if I was caught and tortured, you and your parents would still be safe. Instead, my plan delivered you right into his hands. I might as well have done the deed myself." Sirius hung his head in shame.

"Who was the traitor then?" Harry asked, realizing what had happened twelve years ago.

"Peter Pettigrew. He was our friend, back in school. We thought we could trust him, but the sniveling rat sold us out to save his sorry hide. He should have died, as we would have for him." Sirius growled.

"After that night, I went after him, and cornered him in an alley. Just as I was about to finish him off, he yelled that I betrayed James and Lilly and then blew up the street. The bastard used the mayhem to cut off his finger and transform into a rat to scurry off into the sewers."

"He's an Animagus, then?" Harry asked.

"We all were. Well, except for Moony, of course." Sirius shrugged.

"You know where Pettigrew is, don't you? That's why you escaped from Azkaban." Everything made sense to Harry now.

"Look into my left pocket. When I saw he was at Hogwarts, I had to escape; I couldn't let him stay near you." Sirius explained.

"Weasley. I should have bloody known." Harry growled as he looked at the ratty newspaper clipping.

* * *

"What do we do now, Harry?" Hermione caught their attention.

"I need to think. The Weasley twins are my contacts in Gryffindor. I'll tell them to bring me Pettigrew. Sirius, I'll ask you to stay here. I'll have some food and clean clothes brought for you, and you'll be able to get cleaned as well." Harry's face softened as he released his godfather from the chair.

"It's good to see you, kid. You've grown into a fine young man. My one regret is that I wasn't there to see it happen." Sirius sighed after he gave his godson a hug.

"Don't beat yourself up over it. I like how my life turned out." Harry grinned.

"And who is this charming young lady? Your girlfriend, perhaps?" Sirius teased him.

"Hermione Granger. Nice to meet you, Mr. Black." Hermione offered her hand graciously, and Sirius gallantly bowed and touched his lips to it.

"The pleasure is all mine. You mentioned food, Harry?" Sirius turned to his godson, his stomach giving them a loud growl.

"Sirius, this is Millicent Bulstrode and Neville Longbottom. These three are my closest friends at Hogwarts. And you've already met Acheron." Harry grinned as he scratched his familiar as he rested on his shoulders.

"I won't forget him anytime soon. So, are you all in the same house?" Sirius asked them.

"No, actually. Neville is in Hufflepuff, and Hermione in Ravenclaw. Millie and I are in Slytherin." Harry grinned.

"So, your mother did win the bet. She always said you'd end up there." Sirius grinned.

Their conversation was interrupted as a second Harry walked in with a tray overflowing with food and a simple, but clean robe.

"Alright, now I'm curious. I know for a fact your parents only had one child." Sirius asked.

"This is just a little spell we managed to learn. Let's just say we're learning a bit more than the standard curriculum." Harry grinned as his clone dispersed.

"I feel there's a story behind this. And where in Hogwarts are we? I don't recognize this room." Sirius asked between bites.

"All in good time, Sirius. It might be a good idea for you to stay in here for a couple of weeks. Some medical treatment and good food will do you a world of good." Harry pointed out the man's appearance. The man was a mess, in more ways than one.

"I see your point. You'll get the rat?" Sirius asked.

"If he's still in Hogwarts, then yes. Now, I suggest you take a bath and get some sleep. We'll stop by in the morning." With that, the quartet left, after arranging for the RoR to provide a bathroom and a bed for the man.

* * *

"Sorry mate, but the little bugger has been gone for days, maybe longer. Ron has been complaining about it constantly." Fred was surprised by the unusual request by their Slytherin employer, but the twins learned quickly that Harry didn't act without a good reason.

"That's a shame. Well, thanks anyways. See you guys around." Harry hid his disappointment well, but inwardly, he was pretty angry that the little rat slipped away.

"Damn. That means I have to go out there to get him." Sirius stood up, but Harry pushed him back down.

"Out of the question. You're in no condition to live on the run. You need medical treatment, not to mention plenty of food and rest. You're driving your self into an early grave by going like this." Harry protested.

"Harry, I have to find him. I have to make him pay." Sirius objected.

"Let me ask you this. What would my parents prefer? Vengeance or you doing your duty?" Harry's emerald eyes bore into the man and his anger simply evaporated.

"You're right. I do need to get my head back in order. Still, seeing you train is not helping that much." Sirius chuckled.

"I know. Sometimes even I can hardly believe what we've accomplished. As for your recovery, I've already made some arrangements." Harry gestured him to follow.

"I bought a small cottage in a nice little place called Healing. It's completely Muggle, so you won't be bothered much. I also have these for you in case you need to go out in town. I'll deliver more as I make them." Harry handed him four paper slips each with a complex drawing on them.

"This is an inscribed transformation technique. It's good for four hours, so I suggest you get yourself a watch. If anyone in the town asks, you are the owner's cousin, using the cottage for some time away from your work and the big city. I also arranged for a house elf to work for you. Stay there and we'll talk more over the summer." Harry's tone was calm, but firm, and from experience with James, Sirius knew the boy would not take no for an answer.

"One last thing. Here's a thousand pounds. You can pay me back once you're a free man." Harry grinned.

"You know, I'm supposed to be taking care of you." Sirius laughed.

"I can take care of myself, but I appreciate your effort. Now, let's see what Hermione cooked up for you." Harry led him to the lab they used for the manufacture of their medicines and other substances. All materials had to be brought in, as the RoR could not create permanent conjurations, but it wasn't a big problem for them.

* * *

"Right on time, Harry." Hermione grinned and picked up a wooden box and handed it to Sirius.

Inside it were several bottles full of different colored pills.

"I've written the dosage on each of them, so you shouldn't have any trouble. They are a combination of various medicines and stimulants that will help you recover your physical health quickly. I have also provided the elf that will be working for you a detailed diet plan. If you stick by it, by Harry's birthday, you'll be in a better shape than when you were before Azkaban." Hermione grinned.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I'll have to get in touch with Moony and clear the air between us." Sirius exclaimed.

"Who's Moony?" Harry asked.

"Remus Lupin. He, James, Peter and myself were the best friends while we were here. He's the reason we all became animagi in the first place. We found out he was a werewolf and we learned how to change to make him company during the full moon." Sirius remembered the old days fondly.

"I'm sure if you send him a letter with the clipping in it, he'll believe you. Still, it would be best if you told no one where you're staying. I'd prefer it if my safe houses remain a secret. Once you recover, you can move somewhere else." Harry shrugged.

"I do have a well protected house in London, but it's not a place I'd go to if I can help it. It was my old family home, and I have a lot of bad memories from it." Sirius shuddered.

"I do have a number of house elves in my employ. I'm sure you'll feel more comfortable in it if you remodeled it." Harry grinned.

"It will take a lot of work, since no one has lived in it in over a decade, but I like your suggestion." Sirius grinned.

"I would also recommend you don't throw away any books or items until one of us checks them out as well. Something that's just junk for you may be useful for us." Hermione joined in the discussion.

"Sure. I'll invite you all for Harry's birthday. That works for you?" The group agreed with the suggestion and soon enough, Sirius was on his way to his new home, making sure to be seen a few times to let the Ministry know he was moving away from Hogwarts.

* * *

Meanwhile, a very distressed Remus Lupin was walking up to the Headmaster's tower clutching a letter in his hands.

"Headmaster, I believe we have made a terrible mistake." With that, Remus gave him the letter and explained all the pertinent facts.

"I'm afraid Cornelius would never accept this. He is determined to capture Sirius and give him the Kiss. He won't listen to me without overwhelming evidence." Dumbledore sighed.

"What do we do, then? Sirius said that Peter is no longer at Hogwarts." Remus sighed.

"Wait and see. That's all we can do for now. If Sirius contacts you again, let him know I would like to speak to him as well." Dumbledore smiled.

"I will do so. Good day, Headmaster." Remus stood up, feeling much better than he had in years.

* * *

Soon enough, the year ended, and the students were back on the Hogwarts Express for their trip back to London.

When Harry passed through the barrier and onto King's Cross, for a moment he stared in disbelief at the sight before him.

Both Vernon and Dudley looked much different, and Harry grinned at the effect of a year of proper eating and exercise had done for the pair.

Before, they were almost morbidly obese, but now, all that fat had slowly melted and turned into muscle. He smirked as he noticed several girls checking out his cousin, when before all he would receive would be looks of disgust.

"Looking good, Vernon. I see you took my advice to heart." Harry grinned.

"I didn't like it at first, but the results speak for themselves. I know we've never gotten along, but we've been talking and we think it's time to change things between us." Vernon said once they were all in the car.

"I'd like that. I'll also do my best to keep my world away from you. I know it makes you uncomfortable, and you don't have to deal with it if you don't want to." Harry replied. He may never forget or forgive their past behavior, but they were still family, and he was not about to turn his back on what little relatives he had left.

"Harry, do you have any plans for the summer?" His aunt asked.

"A few. I'll probably leave around the middle of July. A friend invited me to the Quidditch World Cup which is held in Britain this year. It's like a magical version of the Football World Cup, then I'll be staying over at a friend's house for the rest of the summer." Harry replied.

"Alright. I hope you'll have fun." Petunia replied. As Harry sat silently for the rest of the ride, he couldn't help it but grin a little. Things were finally looking up for him.


	13. Chapter 13

Alright, this chapter covers the summer, and I hope you'll like it. I have also placed some photos on my profile, merely as some visual aid for the story. I would also like to ask if anyone is interested in being a beta for my fics, or drawing some pictures for any of them. I would greatly appreciate a picture for my Lantrisi fic. Anyway, read and enjoy.

**Chapter 13**

Harry spent less than a month at the Dursleys, and for the first time in his life, he actually found himself enjoying the time with his relatives.

He and Dudley spent time training and boxing, along with other things, and Harry rather enjoyed being able to act as a normal Muggle teenager for a change.

He and his aunt also connected a bit through their mutual love for cooking, and the pair managed to create culinary masterpieces while still maintaining the healthy standard the family had now adopted.

Harry even managed to get in good with Vernon when the man took him golfing one day. Thanks to his training, Harry was deadly on the course, a fact that Vernon's associates felt painfully through their wallets when Vernon made a few bets.

Far too soon, it seemed, he found himself packing up his things for his trip to Hermione's house, where he would spend a few days until they would head out for the Quidditch World Cup.

* * *

Harry had managed to procure several tickets, not just for his friends, but for their families as well. Madam Longbottom had declined the invitation, claiming that such activities were for younger people, but the Grangers were rather excited to witness such a massive magical event. He had even invited Sirius and Remus, and while Remus was a bit apprehensive, Sirius had repeatedly assured him that everything would be all right.

Soon enough, the group packed in the Granger's car and drove off towards where the people visiting for the World cup were gathering. They had parked their car in a nearby town and hiked the rest of the way.

Harry had reserved a plot and rented a high quality tent that had more than enough room for all his guests with plenty to spare. Millicent had replied that she would be staying with her own family in their tent, so he only had to house the Grangers, Sirius, Remus and Neville.

When Harry and the Grangers arrived, the tent was already up, and since Neville had joined them just as they walked up, told them just who was it that put up the tent.

They walked in the magically enlarged tent to see Sirius calmly drinking a buterbeer, leaned back with his feet on the table while Remus was busy berating him.

"…and will you stop acting so damn relaxed, Padfoot, half the Aurors are after your bloody hide…"

"I hope we're not interrupting anything." Harry grinned as he and his companions stood just inside the door, all sporting amused faces. Harry had of course informed them about Sirius and his status, and the Grangers weren't bothered by seeing what they knew was a wanted fugitive before them.

"About time, Harry. Moony has been nagging me all morning. He's under the impression that my coming here was a big mistake." Sirius made air quotes as he said the last part.

"I would not have invited him without making sure he was safe, professor Lupin. Oh, and you'll love this, Sirius. When Ludo Bagman heard I was buying tickets, he insisted he give me four tickets in the Minister's box. However, Millicent told me her family already had tickets and I still have one ticket left for said box. You want to join us, Sirius?" Harry grinned widely as Remus stared at him like he had three heads.

"You really are the son of Prongs, kid. What about Moony and your other two guests?" Sirius laughed loudly.

"I have secured additional tickets for them. By the way, I have yet to introduce everyone." Harry grinned at Sirius's comment and soon enough the group was busy chatting on a variety of topics as the hours went by.

* * *

Soon enough, the group headed out towards the stadium and to their seats, which were located at the very top of the stadium.

When they arrived, the only thing in the box was a house elf, but the group didn't pay it much attention once they took their seats.

"I wonder why that elf is there?" Hermione kept throwing the creature glances from time to time.

"Probably saving a seat for its master. It's none of our business, Hermione." Harry shrugged.

Soon enough, others began to arrive, and among them were the Minister of Magic that arrived with his Bulgarian counterpart and other dignitaries.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, it is an honor to meet you at last." Cornelius Fudge quickly rushed towards Harry's party.

"The honor is all mine, Minister. Please, allow me to introduce my companions. Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Adam West." Hermione managed to cover up her snicker as a cough when she heard Sirius's fake name.

"A pleasure. This is the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, Mr. Oblansk…Obalonsk…" Fudge fumbled with the foreign name.

"Nice to meet you, Minister." Harry surprised both dignitaries by speaking Bulgarian.

"You speak Bulgarian, Mr. Potter?" The man grinned.

"Not as much as I'd like. It would be my pleasure to entertain you and your team in my tent after the match." Harry clearly struggled with the foreign language, but still managed it.

"I hope it will be a victory party." The Bulgarian Minister continued in English, causing a sour look to appear on Fudge's face.

"We shall see. My invitation stands, regardless of the match' outcome." Harry grinned. The man gave him a pleasant nod and walked away to his seat.

* * *

"Hello, Draco." Harry grinned as the Malfoys walked in the box.

"Potter. What the hell are you doing here?" Draco sneered.

"I am here by personal invitation of the Minister, of course. Mrs. Malfoy, it is an honor to meet a scion of the house of Black. The rumors of your beauty do not do you justice." Harry completely brushed off Draco and approached his mother.

"You are certainly well educated, Mr. Potter. Not many young wizards bother with proper etiquette nowadays." Mrs. Malfoy replied haughtily.

"Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy. Mr. Malfoy." Harry greeted Lucius with a nod and returned to his seat.

"Smooth much?" Hermione whispered as he sat down.

"Just making an impression, Hermione. A reputation is a valuable thing to have." Harry whispered back.

The match was absolutely spectacular, and despite Krum's skillful catch of the Snitch, the Bulgarians lost with only ten points difference.

"My invitation still stands, Minister." Harry approached the Bulgarian Minister. After a few moments, the man nodded. "I will inform my staff and the team."

Harry told him where to find the tent and he and his friends headed out as well.

* * *

"So, why did you invite the Bulgarians?" Sirius asked once they were in the tent.

"Business, actually. The Egyptians in Alexandria are charging me an arm and a leg for my exports, so I'm working on alternative routes for my company. Working through the Bulgarian Black Sea port cities would be far more profitable." Harry grinned.

"Should have known you had some sort of scheme planned." Sirius sighed.

The Bulgarian diplomats were a pleasant lot, but the Quidditch team was understandably in low spirits. After some introductions and some small talk about the match, the team politely excused themselves, as the fatigue was apparent even on the stoic Krum.

"You are not the first to have problems with the Egyptians, Mr. Potter. Still, their location gives them a stranglehold on marine shipping." The Minister sighed as Harry eventually brought up the topic of his company.

"Has any of your shipping companies considered alternative shipping methods?" Harry asked carefully.

"What exactly do you mean, Mr. Potter?" The Minister quickly caught on that Harry was up to something.

"That is a secret that is worth a great deal of money to me, Minister, but I am willing to discuss a partnership with some of the companies in your own country." Harry grinned.

"I have a feeling the Egyptian Ministry will not be happy with your idea." The Minister grinned.

"I have been lining their pockets for far too long as it is. Your customs laws are far more reasonable." Harry grinned as well.

"I will talk to some people and arrange a meeting for you, Mr. Potter. I have to say, you are not what I expected." The Minister commented.

"I get that a lot. I trust you found the wine to your satisfaction?" Harry smirked.

"It is indeed one of the best Bulgarian sorts. You certainly know how to make a man feel comfortable, Mr. Potter." The Minister laughed as he took another sip of his glass.

"I try…" Harry's words were interrupted by loud shouts from outside.

* * *

"What is going on out there?" Harry frowned as he and his guests rushed out of the tent.

Across the field they saw a group of masked and hooded wizards levitating four figures above them.

"What are those drunken idiots doing?" Harry growled. "Minister, perhaps it would be best if you and your men return to your tents."

"I thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Potter. I shall send you a letter once I have arranged a meeting for you." One by one, the Bulgarians apparated away.

"What are we going to do, Harry?" Neville eyed the mass of masked wizards warily.

"Nothing. Remus, please take the Grangers back to their home, make sure you stop by to pick up their car. Sirius, pack up the tent. We're leaving." Harry commanded.

"Sure thing. I got the portkey right here. We can leave as soon as I'm finished." Sirius replied while Remus apparated away with Hermione's parents.

An island of calm in a sea of panic, the trio stood by as Sirius packed up the tent with a few waves of his wand. Then, with a single whispered word, the old newspaper they were clutching whisked them away to Sirius's house in number 13 Grimmauld Place, London.

* * *

"Nice place." The house had an interesting smell, a mixture between ancient and brand new.

"You should have seen it when I first came here. No one had lived in it since my mother croaked, and it went to pieces. Those elves you sent me were a godsend. Some of the rooms still need a lot of work, but there's enough rooms to stay in." Sirius showed them to the large kitchen/dining room.

"You packed up all the artifacts?" Harry asked. Only he and Hermione would be staying at the house. Neville had already used the floo to get back home, and Millicent and he would floo to Grimmauld Place when they could.

"I have it all gathered in the upstairs drawing room. We can check them over tomorrow. The library is also cleaned up. Just to warn you, some of the books in there are rather unpleasant." Sirius replied.

"We'll be careful. Now, I think it's time we get some sleep." Harry yawned lightly.

"I'll show you to your rooms." Sirius yawned as well.

* * *

The next morning, the trio had a quick breakfast before walking upstairs to check on the various artifacts in the house.

For the most part, the items were either junk or heirlooms that were kept in the house for sentimental reasons. Harry had set aside a few enchanted daggers while Sirius and Hermione were busy packing the rest in a sack to be thrown away later, when Harry picked up a large golden locket and dropped it as if it was red hot.

"What happened?" Sirius turned towards him immediately, checking his hand nervously.

"Nothing. It's just, that locket feels evil. The sensation surprised me." Harry took a second look at the locket and gasped again.

"That's the mark of Slytherin. This locket belonged to him. I wonder why the locket feels evil, though?" Harry frowned.

"Let's ask my elf. He might know something. Kreacher." Sirius shouted, and a rather old house elf apparated in the room.

"You called, master?" The elf spoke with pure hatred in his voice.

"Do you know where this locket came from?" Harry picked up the locket by the chain and dangled it before the elf.

"Master Regulus's locket. Give it here you thief." The elf lunged for it, but Harry was faster.

"Kreacher, stand still and tell us everything you know about the locket." Sirius ordered his elf.

Slowly, Kreacher began his tale, injecting a great deal of contemptuous words for Sirius and told them how the locket came in his possession, and the sacrifice Sirius's brother Regulus made to accomplish that feat.

* * *

"That bloody fool." Sirius was shaken by the tale, and he felt the feelings he had for his little brother, long buried and forgotten bubble to the surface once again.

"This is obviously important to Voldemort. Think we can destroy it?" Hermione eyed the locket with newfound wariness and contempt.

"Let me try." Harry held out his hand while Hermione raised the locket for him. Harry swung his hand and the locket was nearly torn from Hermione's hands.

"Incredible. It barely left a scratch." Harry exclaimed as he examined the locket. A faint line could be seen into the side of it.

"Any other ideas?" Sirius asked.

"Let me get something from my trunk." Harry rushed away and returned with a vial closed with a glass stopper.

"This is basilisk venom. The venom glands were damaged when I killed it, but I managed to get a few vials from it." Harry grinned as he opened the vial. Since both his companions knew that story, he didn't have to explain how he had something so rare. Everyone else took a step back as Harry took the locket and dropped in the half-full vial. The gold began to sizzle and smoke as it touched the venom, and Harry was forced to drop the vial as it began to heat up, but he expected that to happen and he used his wand to levitate it.

It wasn't long before an inhuman shriek echoed from the black smoke released from the vial. Shortly after, the vial stopped bubbling as the locket completely dissolved in the venom.

"I wonder what exactly that locket was, and why it was so important to Voldemort?" Hermione asked.

"Whatever it was, it's gone now. At the very least, your brother can rest peacefully now, Sirius." Harry turned to his godfather.

"I guess so. Thanks, Harry. Kreacher, thank you as well." Sirius sagged in an old armchair, feeling overwhelmed by everything he experienced that morning.

* * *

"You're going to be alright?" Harry asked.

"I just need some time. Everything is turning out so complicated. Was I really so blind before?" Sirius had an absent look in his eyes.

"If you need to talk, I'm right here." Harry put his hand on Sirius's shoulder.

"I'll be fine. Why don't you kids go and check out the library? I'll finish up here." Sirius stood up.

"You think he's really alright?" Hermione turned to Harry as they walked into the library.

"In time. Hearing all that about his brother probably shook him a great deal. They might not have gotten along near the end, but they were still family." Harry sighed, the event bringing up thoughts of his own relatives.

"Come on, let's check out this place. We'll be heading back to Hogwarts soon, and I want to get some useful spells out of these books before then."


	14. Chapter 14

Another chapter done. Not much action in this one, but things are slowly heating up. Also, for those interested in the topic, I will also reveal the pairings for this fic in the upcoming chapter or two, so keep reading :)

**Chapter 14**

The rest of the summer holiday passed in a frenzy of learning new spells, and before the group realized it, it was time to head to Hogwarts once more.

Despite the bad weather, Harry was in a good mood since his efforts towards the Bulgarians were quite successful and he had formed a partnership with three companies, giving them the idea to circumvent marine shipping and in return, he gained exclusive shipping rights for the UK, which was a major importer of many different goods.

"You know, we're so close to our changes that I can practically taste the saltwater." Hermione smirked as they rode on the express.

"We should be done by Christmas, so we should have the rest of the year to get used to the differences." Neville nodded.

"My height has been bothering me a bit lately. A lot of people have been giving me strange looks." Hermione grumbled. She was now almost six feet tall and only approaching her fifteenth birthday.

"The increased size is a part of Kisame's bloodline. You knew that when you picked it." Harry reminded her.

"I don't regret it, it's just been difficult adjusting." Hermione replied.

"Try saying that when your skin is blue and your grow gills on your face." Neville added with a grin.

"Well, at least people are in awe when they meet you. When boys meet me, all they do is drool and stare at my chest." Millicent grumbled, adjusting her bra beneath her robes. This action made the boys blush a bit and look away.

Millicent, who thanks to the kunoichi improvement techniques turned into a real beauty, also had the mixed fortune to have a C-cup already, and it seemed that they would increase further by the time she became an adult.

"Our bodies will stabilize fairly quickly once we go through the treatments. Then it's just a matter of training ourselves into using our newly gained abilities." Harry reminded them.

* * *

The weather was abysmal, and the first thing the quartet did was perform drying charms on themselves the moment they were safely in the castle. Some of the older students copied their example, and the crowd of students filed in the Great Hall in considerably better spirits.

The quartet divided up to their respective houses, where they quickly sank into conversation, catching up to the rest of their friends.

Once the Sorting and feast passed, Dumbledore stood up for his traditional announcements.

He began with the usual stuff then continued to say that the Quidditch Cup would not be held this year. This caused a wave of reaction across the hall, and the team players were the most vocal.

"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts…"

Dumbledore's words were cut off by a loud rumble of thunder. At the same moment, the doors of the hall banged open. A man, shrouded in a black traveling cloak and leaning on a long staff stood in the doorway. The man pulled his hood down, shaking a mane of grizzled, dark gray hair.

As he walked forward, a dull thump was heard every other step, telling the students that one of the man's legs was wooden.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the man's face, and more than one student gasped. The man's face was a mass of scars. A chunk of his nose was missing, and one of his eyes was twice as large as the other was and constantly moved, all without blinking and independently of the other.

The man approached Dumbledore and spoke with him in hushed tones. Harry would have read their lips, but he was not in a position to see them clearly. Dumbledore gestured the man to the staff table, where the man sat to Dumbledore's right.

Again, the man caught Harry's attention by carefully examining the food before he ate, and then only drank from his own flask.

"I would like to introduce the new DADA teacher, Professor Moody." Dumbledore revealed the man's identity at last, and the hall remained eerily silent as only Dumbledore and Hagrid clapped in welcome.

"That's Mad-Eye Moody. He was one of the best Aurors during the war. They say he got paranoid once it was all over, seeing assassins everywhere." Millicent whispered.

"Considering how many Death Eaters he killed or sent to jail, there's a lot of people who would want to see him dead." Daphne joined in.

Dumbledore cut through the mutterings by informing them all that the Triwizard tournament would be held at Hogwarts this year. After a short explanation on what the tournament was exactly, Dumbledore once again caused protests and mutterings to erupt by saying only students of age would be allowed to enter.

Ignoring the protests, Dumbledore sent the students to bed and sat down to talk to Moody.

* * *

"Alright, we're starting the last stages of the treatments. At the current rate of progress, I'll be able to undergo the final surgeries and seal enhancements next month. Neville should be ready to go by Halloween, with you girls following later. If all goes well, we'll be done by Christmas." Harry grinned as he and his friends were busy mixing medicines in the RoR.

"Thanks for getting me this blade, Harry. I'll start working on the seals right away." Hermione hefted the huge slab of steel that was supposed to serve as the base of Samehada. It was just a large, flat slab of steel with a long handle on it.

"Just don't expect any birthday presents for the next five to ten years." Harry smirked as he crushed a handful of leaves in a mortar.

"Harry, you're done with those leaves?" Millicent walked in the lab.

"Just about. Come on, let's get some sparring done." Harry cracked his neck and walked out into the dojo.

* * *

"You can put your books away. You won't need them today." Moody clunked in the DADA classroom. DADA, like potions was a mixed Slytherin Gryffindor class, and Harry could already feel Ron's glare hitting the back of his head.

"Now, professor Lupin sent me a letter telling me about his classes. You've covered Dark Creatures pretty well, but you're behind, very behind on curses." Moody paused. "So, I'm here to bring you up to what wizards can do to each other. I have one year to teach you how to handle…"

A lot of people exclaimed at that bit of information.

"I'm here as a special favor for Dumbledore. One year of teaching, then it's back to my quiet retirement." Moody smirked.

"Now, curses come in many shapes and strengths, and according to the Ministry, I am only supposed to teach you counter curses and stop there. I'm not supposed to show you illegal dark curses until your sixth year. But, Dumbledore has more faith in your nerves, and so do I. You need to know what you're going to face, so you can be best prepared to counter it." Moody left them to ponder his words for a few moments before he continued.

"Now, who can tell me which curses carry the highest penalty?"

"Well, my dad told me about one. The Imperius curse?" Ron was the first to raise his hand.

"Yes, your dad would know that one. It gave the Ministry a lot of trouble, that one." Moody took a spider from a jar on his desk and aimed his wand at it.

Immediately, the spider began doing all sorts of crazy stunts, making the entire class laugh. All except Moody, Harry and Millicent.

The two Slytherins knew what the curse did, and to see even a spider dominated so completely filled them with dread.

* * *

"Think it's funny, huh? How about I do the same to you?" Moody snapped, and the class fell silent as they finally comprehended the full implications of the curse.

"Now, this curse can be fought, and I will be teaching you how, but it takes a strong character to do so. It's best to avoid getting hit completely. Constant Vigilance. Remember it well."

"Now, who knows another curse?" Moody turned to the class again after replacing the spider.

"The Cruciatus Curse." Daphne replied this time.

"Correct." Moody engorged the spider and then cast the curse. This time, the whole class could only watch in horror until Moody stopped the curse.

"All torture methods pale compared to the Cruciatus Curse. This one was very popular with some people back in the day." Moody commented absently before pulling out a third spider.

"Now, who can tell me the third unforgivable curse?" Moody asked.

"Avada Kedavra." Harry whispered.

"You would know that one, huh boy?" Moody grinned a bit before he steeled his face and turned towards the spider on his desk. The creature seemed to feel what was coming, and tried to get away, only for a blast of green light to end its efforts.

"It's not a nice curse, and there's no counter curse, no magical shield that can block it. Only one person has survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me." Moody gave Harry a somber look.

* * *

"That was a rather unpleasant lesson." Daphne commented as their group sat in the common room to get some studying done.

"I agree, but Moody's right. We have to know what the spells look like if we want to fight them." Harry pointed out.

"I agree with Harry. So, what's the first subject we'll be working on tonight?" Millicent pulled up a scroll with their outstanding homework assignments.

The days passed quickly, and pretty soon came Moody's announcement that he would be putting them all under the Imperius curse to get them to recognize the feeling and learn how to fight it.

One by one, Harry's classmates performed feats that they would have been unable to otherwise. Millicent was the sole exception so far, as she had remained resolutely immobile after Moody cursed her, which seemed to please the old Auror immensely, and had cursed her two more times just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

When the curse first hit Harry, he felt a sense of euphoria wash over him. Through this haze, he heard Moody's voice echo in his head. 'Jump on the desk.'

The voice brought his mind on full alert, and the haze on his mind lifted. Again, Moody was pleased with his success, and had him experience the curse several times to ensure he could break it successfully.

* * *

"Well, that's one less worry for us, I guess." Harry guessed. They were back in the RoR, discussing their recent progress and also preparing for the second last surgery for Harry.

His joints, jaw and several key points of his skeleton and muscles would be surgically altered to allow him to use the full range of Orochimaru's techniques but without going quite so far as the man himself had done.

Once his body healed from the procedure, he would undergo the final treatment, which was a series of seals applied on his body. When complete and compressed, they would form the purple markings around the eyes that were one of Orochimaru's distinguishing marks.

The rest of the group were also finishing up with their medical treatments, and would be integrating the bloodlines of their chosen shinobi soon as well.

"You ready for this, Harry?" Hermione turned to her friend as he lay on the operating table.

"Go ahead with the anesthetic. I'll see you when I wake up." Harry grinned. Hermione nodded and added the syringe she was holding into his IV drip. A few minutes later, Harry was out like a light and his friends moved on the well practiced procedure with their absolute focus and dedication turned to the task at hand.

It was a very prudent decision to perform the surgery on a Friday night, as Harry would be unable to even stand until his body adapted completely to the procedure.

By Monday, he was back on his feet, but it would take him weeks until he was back to his full ability.

* * *

Soon enough, it was time for the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to arrive, and the school had gathered to greet them.

Both schools had chosen rather impressive methods to arrive, Beauxbatons arriving with a massive chariot pulled by giant winged horses, while Durmstrang arrived with a ship that emerged from beneath the Hogwarts Lake.

Inside the castle, the students from Beauxbatons joined the Ravenclaw table, while Viktor Krum led his schoolmates directly to the Slytherin table, where the Bulgarian sat across Harry and greeted him with a slight smile.

Harry returned the grin as well, especially when he saw the look of jealousy Ron was giving them. Since Viktor's dad was one of the Bulgarian partners of Harry's business, Viktor was quite friendly with him, and the two quickly sank into talks about business, spoken in rapid Bulgarian, which none of Harry's Slytherin classmates seemed to understand.

The feast provided excelled all others Harry had sampled so far, and he particularly enjoyed sampling some of the dishes Viktor recommended, with his friends doing the same. Finally, the feast was over, and Dumbledore called for attention.

Dumbledore began to explain in greater detail about the tournament, introducing his fellow judges, which would be not only his fellow headmasters from the other two schools, but also two Ministry officials as well, namely Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman.

As Dumbledore was talking, Filch had brought in an ancient, jewel encrusted chest, and had placed it before Dumbledore.

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament." Dumbledore continued, ignoring the chest for now. "One from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

With that, Dumbledore tapped the chest three times with his wand and pulled out a goblet made of roughly hewn wood full of blue-white flame.

"Anyone wishing to compete must write their name and school on a piece of parchment and throw it into the Goblet. Those wishing to do so will have twenty-four hours for this, and the Goblet will be placed into the entrance hall where it will be accessible to all. Tomorrow, at Halloween, the Goblet will return the names of the three it found most worthy." Dumbledore continued.

"To ensure that no one underage attempts to add their name, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet. No one under seventeen will be able to cross it. And finally, I should warn you that you should not submit your name lightly. If chosen you will be bound to see the tournament to the end." With that, Dumbledore sent them away.

* * *

The next day passed in a flurry of excitement as various students submitted their names. Several Hogwarts students also tried to cheat Dumbledore's Age Line, but none had succeeded.

Once again, the students had gathered in the Great Hall, eagerly anticipating the announcing of the champions.

Finally, it seemed the moment had come, and Dumbledore darkened the hall, probably to increase the dramatic effect, Harry mused.

The flames in the Goblet turned red, and it shot out a jet of flame, leaving behind a slightly smoking piece of parchment.

"The Champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum." Dumbledore announced, and with amidst the cheering and applause, Viktor stood up and walked out of the Hall to a side chamber.

"The Beauxbatons Champion is Fleur Delacour." Dumbledore read the second parchment from the Goblet.

A rather attractive blond girl stood gracefully and joined Viktor.

And finally, the moment most of the people in the Hall were waiting for came. The name of the Hogwarts Champion.

"The Hogwarts Champion will be Cedric Diggory."

The Hufflepuff table erupted in deafening cheer as their housemate was chosen, and Cedric walked out of the Hall with a broad grin.

"Well, we have our three champions, and I hope that everyone will show their support for our brave trio." Dumbledore would have continued speaking, but his words were cut off when the Goblet emitted a shower of red sparks and shot out a fourth slip of parchment.

Dumbledore fished it out of the air automatically, and stared at it for a full minute before he spoke. "Harry Potter."


	15. Chapter 15

Well, I have finally managed to complete this chapter, which was a lot harder than I expected when I started it. The next chapter will feature the first task, which Harry will pass in a way I hope none of you expect, another event that is mentioned in this chapter, and if it fits, the Yule Ball and with it, the pairings for this fic. Those who wish to see a specific pairing can mention it in a review, and I am willing to consider it, provided I can find a way to fit it into the plot. If necessary I will include flashbacks to expand on the relationship, so you don't have to fear it will be a sudden romance. Anyway, enough rambling. Read and enjoy.

**Chapter 15**

The Great Hall fell silent at Dumbledore's words, but as Harry stood up and began walking towards him, the whispers began, so that by the time Harry reached the Headmaster, the Hall was buzzing like a hive.

Dumbledore just gestured towards the same door the other Champions had gone through, but he did not speak.

"What brings you here, Harry?" Cedric was the first to speak.

"Apparently, I was chosen as a Champion as well." Harry shrugged. Krum gained a speculative look on his face, while Fleur's was a mixture between disbelief and confusion. Cedric on the other hand, had a slightly nervous look on his face.

The adults were just behind Harry, and it took only moments before the three school Heads were arguing about this unexpected turn of events.

"I wonder how Mr. Potter managed to get his name in the Goblet in the first place." Snape joined the discussion, making the three Heads pause for a moment.

"Do you have any idea, Mr. Potter?" The potions master turned towards his student.

"No. I did not enter my name, nor did I ask anyone to do so." Harry said calmly.

"He is lying, of course." Madam Maxime snapped.

"I am prepared to swear an Unbreakable Vow if it will convince you." Harry said with narrowed eyes. This silenced all protests, and the teachers turned to the two Ministry officials to settle the matter.

"The rules are clear. The students whose names emerge from the Goblet of Fire must compete in the tournament." Mr. Crouch said after a few moments.

"Still, it is highly unfair that Hogwarts should get two Champions. I insist we resubmit the names of our students until all schools have two Champions." Karkaroff turned to Dumbledore.

"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way, Karkaroff. The Goblet has gone out and it won't reignite until the next tournament." Bagman spoke up.

* * *

"May I offer an alternative?" All eyes turned to Harry as he spoke.

"Make additional events for the other students. A Quidditch tournament or a dueling competition. That way, the students that weren't chosen will still have the opportunity to earn some glory for themselves and the school. I am also prepared to pledge five hundred galleons to pay for the organization as well as prize money."

"Good idea. I will also offer five hundred galleons for these events." Krum stepped forward as well.

"An excellent suggestion, Mr. Potter. We will make the necessary preparations as soon as possible." Bagman grinned widely. "Now, let's give you the instructions for the first task. Barty, will you do the honors?"

Crouch seemed to take a few moments to collect himself, and Harry noticed that the man looked very tired and worn.

"The first task is designed to test your daring, so we won't tell you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is a very important quality in a wizard. The task will be held on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the students and a panel of judges. You will not be permitted to ask or accept help of any kind from your teachers. In the first task, you are only allowed your wand in this task. You will receive information about the second task once the first is over. Due to the demanding and time consuming nature of the Tournament, all Champions are exempt from the end-of-year exams."

"I believe that is all, right Albus?" Crouch turned to Dumbledore.

"I believe so. Would you like to stay at Hogwarts tonight, Barty?" The old man gave Crouch a concerned look. It seemed Harry wasn't the only one that noticed the man's worn out look.

"No, I must go back to the Ministry. This is a very busy time." Crouch shook his head and walked out of the room. The others followed suit, and soon enough, Harry was out, headed down to the dungeons.

Noise washed over him as soon as he opened the door to the common room. The whole house seemed to be present, all celebrating loudly over the fact that one of their own managed to pull a fast one on the adults and get himself into the Triwizard Tournament.

Harry's already high reputation in his House soared to new heights thanks to this, and for the moment, he decided to enjoy the party.

* * *

"It is all one big inconvenience. This Tournament will greatly cut into my free time, and I don't have much of it to begin with." Harry commented as he and his friends were busy preparing for Neville's second-last treatment. A week later, Harry would receive the final seals that would complete his transformation, and Neville's treatments would end just a few days before the first event.

Out on the training field, Hermione was busy practicing with the newly completed Samehada. The massive sword was not wrapped up at the moment, and watching it tear massive chunks from the wooden training dummies made one wonder what it could do to human flesh. Hermione still had a lot of treatments to go through, but the group was confident that she would be done by Christmas.

"Well, since you can't get out of it, there's only one thing you can do. Win." Millicent grinned. Her final procedure was set to the beginning of December.

"Well, I might as well practice some magic. Who wants to duel me?" Harry grinned.

* * *

The school's reactions to Harry's Champion status was quite mixed, as always. His house was firmly behind him, ready to defend him from anyone who even dared imply he wasn't the soon-to-be winner of the Tournament.

On the other side of the coin were Gryffindor, who put their full support on Cedric, calling Harry a cheater and a thief. Ron was of course the most vocal, and for the moment, found himself a rather sizable group of people that disliked Harry. The Ravenclaws were neutral, picking their Champion on personal preference, and there were even few that supported the foreign Champions.

The Hufflepuffs stood by their Champion, but unlike the Gryffindors did not have any bad feelings for Harry, mostly because their most prominent members, namely Neville and Cedric had a rather high opinion for their Slytherin schoolmate, and knew that he was not personally responsible for his participation in the Tournament.

"May I have your attention, please? In addition to the three events of the Triwizard Tournament, it has been decided that two additional competitions will take place to give the chance to the students that had not been chosen. To be fair to the visiting schools, only those students from Hogwarts that were eligible to enter the Tournament may enter these competitions as well. The first contest will be a Quidditch tournament, where the winning team will have the honor of being the first team in history to win such an event. The second contest will be a dueling competition. In addition to the throphies, the winning teams of both events will also earn five hundred galleons, generously provided by Messrs. Potter and Krum." Dumbledore announced to the school.

The entire Great Hall erupted in talk after this announcement, and Harry saw those students who were eligible for the contests quickly gather to discuss the subject. The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were also busy discussing the topic.

"Pity you can't compete, Viktor. We would have crushed the other schools with you on our side." One of Viktor's schoolmates turned to the pro Seeker.

"You're lucky Harry can't enter the dueling team as well. The teachers still won't let him cast spells on other students." Daphne turned to the Durmstrang group with a smirk.

"Why? Can't he cast properly?" One of the Durmstrang girls scoffed.

"No, he just puts too much power in them. He's probably the only person I know that can cause the effect of a Dismemberment Curse with the Disarming Spell." Daphne gave them an evil grin as the older students gave Harry a slightly nervous look. For his part, he did not react, merely continued his talk with Millicent.

* * *

The next day Harry walked into Potions in high spirits, looking forward to the upcoming lesson on antidotes, as they fully expected Snape to test some hapless Gryffindor's botched recipe on the incompetent student.

The Gryffindor's gave him a lot of glares and whispered snide comments, but they knew better than to cause trouble in Snape's domain.

"Today we'll be working on antidotes. Brew your potions carefully, because one of you will be chosen to demonstrate their antidote before the class." Snape said calmly. Before he could continue, there was a knock on the door and a younger Gryffindor walked in. Harry thought his name began with a C, but other than that, didn't pay him much thought.

"Yes?" Snape's glare and tone could have flash frozen fire.

"Please sir, I'm supposed to take Harry Potter upstairs." The boy said nervously.

"Mr. Potter, pack up your things. You are excused from today's lesson." Snape said shortly.

"May I be allowed to present my antidote at a later date?" Harry asked, and Snape gave him a light smirk.

"No need, Mr. Potter. As you have yet to provide anything but exemplary work in my class so far, I will give you full marks for today's lesson."

"Thank you, sir." Harry had finished packing up and walked away, giving the Gryffindors a big grin. Many, especially Ron seemed willing to risk the loss of points and detention to argue against such blatant favoritism, but fortunately for them, none rose to the bait.

* * *

"So, what's all this about?" Harry asked the smaller Gryffindor, who seemed very nervous to be alone with what his House considered the next Dark Lord.

"Mr. Bagman said something about wand weighing." The boy stammered.

"Ah, I forgot that was coming. What's your name?" Harry gave the nervous boy a reassuring smile.

"Colin Creevey."

"So, you any good with that camera?" Harry had noticed the photo camera hanging from the boy's neck.

"I think so." Colin said slowly.

"Tell you what. Give me some examples later. If I like them, I'll pay you fifteen galleons per event to take pictures for me. What do you think?" Harry gave the wide-eyed boy a grin.

"Sure. I'll bring you my best pictures." Colin beamed.

* * *

"Ah, right on time, Harry. Right this way, the wand weighing ceremony will begin soon. This is Rita Skeeter, she's writing a small piece for the Daily Prophet." Bagman pulled him into the room and introduced him to Britain's most infamous reporter.

"Maybe not that small, Ludo." Rita grinned while looking at Harry. "I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start? The youngest champion, you know… to add a bit of color?"

"I'll have to decline. I do not wish to give an interview at this time." Harry said firmly. Rita's reputation was well known in Slytherin, and he had no desire to let her anywhere near him.

Rita seemed annoyed by his refusal, but she couldn't do anything without appearing rude.

Harry spent the time chatting with Viktor, waiting for the rest of the officials to arrive. He didn't have to wait long, as Dumbledore walked in minutes later, followed by Ollivander.

* * *

"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" Dumbledore said once he sat down. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."

"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" Ollivander turned to the girl. Fleur nodded lightly and handed him her wand.

The wand maker examined it carefully, and Harry was interested to learn the revelation that Fleur had a Veela ancestor. A wand with a core from such a close relative would work very well for the girl.

Once Ollivander proclaimed the wand to be in excellent shape, he moved onto Cedric, who had one of the man's own wands.

Again, the man examined it carefully until he was satisfied it was in good shape.

Krum was next, and from Ollivander's mutterings, it was obvious, at least to Harry that there was some history between Ollivander and Gregorovitch, the man that had made Krum's wand.

"Well, that leaves Mr. Potter." Harry handed his wand over, and once again, Ollivander examined it carefully.

"I remember this wand. I must thank you for your reports, Mr. Potter. As far as I know, this wand is the only one in the world that has the hair of a Yuki-Onna as a core." A lot of people were surprised at that revelation, as no one knew that Harry's wand didn't have one of the commonly used cores.

"It is indeed in excellent condition, although I doubt it will work even remotely as well for anyone else but you." Ollivander commented as he handed him the wand.

Once they were over, Rita insisted they take pictures, which took a while, and Harry was glad to get down to the Hall and get some food in his stomach.

* * *

"You're a bit lost, little Gryffindor. Your table's over there." A few fifth years had barred Colin's path as he walked nervously towards Harry. A lot of students from the other Houses as well had noticed the spectacle and were watching closely.

"I asked him to come here." Harry's words erased their grins in a second, and they moved to let Colin pass.

"Please sit, help yourself." Harry offered him a seat across from him and gestured to the food.

"Thanks, but I ate already." Emboldened by Harry's support, he handed him several pictures and waited as Harry studied them carefully.

"Not bad. You're hired. Bring me the pictures after the first event and I'll pay you then. I might even hire you for other things as well." Harry gave him the pictures back, and Colin rushed away to his own House table.

"You hired that mudblood pipsqueak?" Nott scoffed.

"The kid's got talent. Besides, this way I control which pictures of myself go public. After all, I have to maintain the reputation of House Potter." He got a lot of understanding nods at that. A lot of them came from similar families; though very few were from such an old family as his.

* * *

The weekend before the first task was an important date for them, as it was the date when Harry's treatments were set to be completed.

On Friday night, the group had convened into the RoR, and a few hours later, Harry was sitting on the stone floor, trying hard not to shiver as he was clad only in boxers as the others were busy writing seals all over him and the floor of the room.

"Finally. You ready Harry?" Neville cracked his back as he and the girls took their position to activate the array. Harry gave them a slight nod as he bit down on the thick piece of hard leather in his mouth.

"Activate." The trio slammed their hands on the floor as they pushed chakra into the array.

The massive seal began to glow and rush towards Harry, causing muffled moans to echo from him.

Finally, the sealing was complete and Harry collapsed on the floor, smoke still rising from his face. His eyes were now framed by purple markings, and they could feel that his power had grown noticeably.

"Did anyone catch the dragon that trampled me?" Harry woke up with a groan, noticing how much sharper everything looked. A mirror appeared on the nightstand next to the bed, and he took it to examine his appearance.

The most obvious difference was the fact that his pupils were now slit, giving him the 'eyes of a serpent' as Orochimaru had told him. Other than being much sharper than a human's was, if he pushed chakra in them, he would be able to see heat as well, which came very handy for tracking. Other than that, the only difference were the purple markings around his face. A as he yawned, he winced a bit as he stretched the still sensitive skin around his eyes.

"Looking good, Harry." The girls stopped their spar and gave him a few wolf whistles as he had stepped out into the main room of their training facility wearing only his boxers. He blushed lightly and headed back in the room to get dressed. Neville just shook his head and returned his attention to the scroll he was reading.

"Damn, it took me months to get my chakra control as high as it was. Now I have to do all that work again, and it's going to be even harder this time." Harry groaned as he realized that his chakra levels had also been increased by the sealing. He had been expecting it, of course, but he was surprised how much the gain had been.

"The spirits were finally in a position to repay you for slaying Slytherin's basilisk, and have gifted you with extra power." Acheron had revealed the unexpected boost in power.

"I wish I was informed of this beforehand." Harry felt a bit annoyed by this revelation.

"That would have ruined the surprise." Acheron laughed.

"Well, no use complaining about it." Harry sighed and created ten Kage Bunshin. "Let's get some training done. I want to have better control for the first task."


	16. Chapter 16

Alright, I finally revealed the story pairings in this chapter, and I hope I managed to surprise you with my decision. Also, I hope you'll like the way I wrote the first task.

**Chapter 16**

Harry walked towards the site of the first task in high spirits. True, he had no idea what the task would be, but the unknown peril only added to his excitement.

When he entered the Champion's tent, he took a quick look at his competition before Bagman gestured him forward. All of them looked very nervous and pensive, which contrasted greatly with Harry's demeanor. There was even a slight smirk adorning his face.

"Now, let me explain the procedure to you. When the audience is assembled, I'll be offer you this bag," Bagman held up a purple velvet bag "from which you will draw a small model of the thing you're going to face. There are different… varieties you see. One last thing. Your task is to get the golden egg."

A few minutes of tense silence passed, broken only by Harry's attempt to whistle a tune. However, his attempt to lighten the mood earned him three very hostile glares, so he decided to remain silent.

* * *

Soon enough, the sounds of the audience gathering outside the tent could be heard, and Bagman entered the tent once more and offered them the now open bag.

"Ladies first." He turned to Fleur first. She reached in nervously and pulled out a small green dragon with the number two hanging from its neck.

Krum went next, pulling a red dragon with the number three.

Cedric went next, pulling a bluish-gray dragon with the number one. He stared at the miniature with a certain level of shocked horror. It seemed he wasn't expecting something as dangerous as a dragon.

Harry was the last, and pulled out a rather mean looking black one with the number four on it.

"Interesting. Pity I'm going last." Harry grinned. Unlike the rest of the Champions, his worry was not how to survive the dragon, but do it only using magic. The four shinobi were still keeping their skills a closely guarded secret.

Moments later, a very nervous Cedric was led outside, and Harry sat down, listening to the commentaries from Bagman as he waited his turn, which came a lot faster than he expected. It seemed the three Champions stood up to their title, even if Cedric seemed to have some trouble at the start.

* * *

Harry walked out of the tent and through a fence, emerging in a large enclosure with stands circling it, and he could see hundreds of people, all enjoying the spectacle.

And on the other side of the enclosure was his opponent, the massive snarling form of the Hungarian Horntail, curled protectively around a nest of eggs.

Harry tightened his grip on his wand as he began pooling his chakra. He began walking forward in steady, measured steps as he kept his eyes locked with the dragons.

By the time he had crossed half the arena, the dragon had decided it had let him approach far enough and reared its head to send a stream of flame at him.

At the same time, Harry raised his wand, and loudly shouted "Stupefy." The spell left his wand with a deafening bang, the bolt of energy colored a very deep red. The spell hit the dragon's head, bursting into a large cloud of sparks. The dragon staggered back a few steps and swung its head groggily, it's eyes completely unfocused.

Harry didn't give it a chance to recover as a second stunner hit its head again. The dragon retreated a few more steps, and then, to everyone's surprise, collapsed and did not move.

Harry walked forward with calm steps, suppressing a wince of pain. On his right hand, you could see blisters forming from where his skin touched his wand. The wood was scorching hot from the amount of energy he had forced through it, but he did not show his discomfort as he scooped up the golden egg from the nest and held it aloft.

It took the crowd over twenty seconds to begin cheering, but when they did, the roar was deafening.

Harry grinned and turned towards the judges for his score.

One by one, all the judges gave him a ten, except for Karkaroff who gave him a seven, earning him loud booing from the audience.

* * *

His calm demeanor faded away once he was in the medical tent. His hand was throbbing with pain. He managed to get his palm from around the wand handle after a few tries, wincing at the sight of the inside of his hand. Since it was wrapped around the wand, the heat had no way of escaping, and had thus caused some heavy burns.

"Oh dear. That is a nasty burn, Mr. Potter. Let's see what we can do." Madam Pomfrey got to work on his hand, and soon enough, the throbbing pain lessened considerably.

"Come to the Hospital Wing again tomorrow to have your bandage changed." The Matron had instructed him after dabbing his hand in some salve and wrapping it with bandages.

"How long will I have to keep it wrapped?" Harry asked.

"About a week. Have no worries, you'll be right as rain in a week. You may want to have your wand checked. It may have suffered some damage." She replied.

When Harry entered the Champions tent again, his wrapped hand drew some looks, but no one asked anything.

"Well done, allof you!" Bagman grinned at them. "Now, just a quick few words. You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth, but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open. See the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg, because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"

"So, what happened to your hand, mate?" Blaise asked as he joined his group of friends on their way to the castle.

"My wand overheated. Felt like I was holding a red-hot steel rod after I cast the second stunner." Harry winced at the memory. While he was not a stranger to pain, neither was he immune to it. And since he couldn't avoid getting checked out by the school nurse, he also had to let her heal it without being aided by shinobi methods.

Still, once he saw the massive celebration that awaited him in the Slytherin common room, he felt like the whole thing was worth it.

* * *

The following week was rather enjoyable for Harry, even with injury. He was pleased to learn that his wand would be all right, although Ollivander recommended he refrained from using for at least a week, which in turn gave him an excuse to skip the practical portion of the wand using classes.

He still worked on the theory, using a dictation quill to write his homework, which earned him a lot of points with the teachers. Potions became his favorite class that week, as due to his injury, Snape assigned Weasley to aid him in the preparation of his ingredients.

"Be warned Weasley, should Mr. Potter's grades slip due to your incompetence, you will receive a failing grade for my class." Snape cut through any protests the redhead could make, and ensured that the boy would pay attention to what he was doing.

"Bet you're enjoying this, aren't you Potter?" Ron sneered as he was bent over, cutting up various ingredients.

"Immensely. Hurry up with those roots; they need to be added soon." Harry grinned. While Snape had no great fondness for Harry, he respected the boy's talents and attitude. The fact that Harry went out of his way to stop bullies and help struggling students earned him a lot of points in his Head's eyes. The fact that he gave Snape so many opportunities to 'educate' the Gryffindors only added to this.

* * *

"I am sure you are all quite busy, so I'll make this as brief as possible. As some of you may already know, the Yule Ball is a traditional part of the Triwizard tournament. The Ball will be open to fourth years and above, although if you wish to invite a younger student, you may do so. Dress robes are mandatory, and the ball will last from eight to twelve on Christmas Day. I will of course expect behavior worthy of the noble name of Slytherin. Should you fail this expectation, you will find the consequences quite… unpleasant." Snape concluded the meeting.

"Anyone you're interested in, oh fearless leader?" Blaise asked with a grin once Snape left the common room.

"I can honestly say I have no idea. Would you be interested, Millicent?" Harry's request surprised the girl.

"Are you asking me as a friend, or do you have deeper intentions?" She asked curiously.

"As a friend for now. As for more, who knows what the future holds." Harry shrugged.

"Alright, I accept, I obviously won't find anyone better than you in this place." She smirked at the indignant look Blaise gave her.

It turned out that Millicent was rather popular, as the next day, several Ravenclaws and even Hufflepuffs had approached her with offers for the ball, which she refused politely. Blaise had also used the opportunity Harry provided to ask Daphne.

* * *

"So, what do you think about the whole Ball business?" Harry asked as they were preparing to finalize Millicent's transformation. Neville's had been completed just before the first task, and he was already working on how to generate magnetic fields using his chakra. The Third Kazekage's Iron Sand ability was extremely complex, as one had to generate sometimes even dozens of fields at the same time to control it, and all of them had to mesh just right. For now, Neville could only move small amounts in a single direction, but the Kazekage assured him that the process would become instinctual with experience.

"Not sure. I'm still thinking about whether I want to go in the first place, and if I do, who I should ask." Neville shrugged.

"Less chatter and more brushwork you two. We still have a lot more work to do." Hermione cut through their conversation.

This time, the boys were facing an unexpected difficulty. For the procedure, Millicent was supposed to lie naked in the middle of the array, which caused quite the distraction in the two teenagers. Fortunately for them, Hermione was there to apply the seals that were supposed to go on Millicent's body, or they would have never completed the sealing.

Even with such a major distraction, they managed to finish the process, although Harry was beginning to change his opinion about his friend. He had to admit that he was attracted to her, as would any straight male. Millicent had grown into a real beauty, with strength of spirit that matched that beauty.

"How do you feel?" Harry asked once Millicent had recovered from the procedure.

"Not that different, actually. Not surprising, since the whole thing was to give me the ability to mix my elemental chakra into combination elements." Millicent shrugged.

"By the way, I couldn't help but notice how you kept throwing glances at me during the sealing." She teased him.

"Millicent, I'm not blind or gay. And you are rather attractive." Harry shrugged, showing only the faintest blush on his cheeks.

* * *

The rest of the term passed rather quickly and uneventfully, and soon enough it was time for the Ball, but before that, they had to finally complete Hermione's transformation.

Again, the boys did the outer seal while Millicent worked on Hermione's body. It was by far the most complex array they had created, and all of them were dead tired when it was done.

"So, how do I look?" Hermione stood before her friends, wearing only her underwear, which gave the boys more than a little wardrobe trouble. Even with such distractions, the changes were clear. Hermione's skin was now light blue, and she had gills on her face. Her bushy brown hair had turned dark blue and a bit straighter, but not by much. And finally, she had gained a little extra muscle tone while still retaining her feminine curves.

"Absolutely beautiful." Neville grinned, causing her to blush which looked a bit unusual on her now blue skin.

Neville had asked her to the Ball, and it was clear that he was developing feelings about her. Dancing would be a bit unusual, since she was taller than he was, but he didn't mind.

"I never expected to date Millicent, you know?" Harry and Neville had discussed the recent developments, just to get a clear picture of things.

"I know what you mean, but I think we've been developing feelings for a while now, we just haven't realized it until we asked them to the Ball." Neville mused.

"It's possible." Harry admitted.

* * *

At last, the big evening had arrived, and Harry was standing in the common room, wearing dark green dress robes. His hair, which was grown long in traditional pureblood fashion, was tied in a ponytail. Millicent emerged soon, wearing a pale green strapless dress.

"Shall we, milady?" Harry gallantly held out his arm.

"Thank you, kind sir." Millicent grinned as the two walked out and towards the Great Hall.

Neville and Hermione were already there, Neville was wearing a bit more traditional black robes while Hermione was wearing a periwinkle blue dress. Her normal appearance was hidden using Tsunade's special transformation technique, which Hermione managed to learn with great difficulty, considering her massive chakra pool.

They waited only a few moments before McGonagall led the Champions inside the Hall and towards the main table. The Hall was completely transformed, and Harry examined it all carefully. Instead of the large House tables, many smaller tables were spread around the Hall, with a large empty space in the middle for dancing. The decorations were a cut above even the usually extravagant Christmas decorations, which was quite understandable, given the special occasion.

Harry sat next to Dumbledore, while Krum and his date, one of the Durmstrang girls sat next to them.

Harry had spent a rather pleasant time over dinner discussing various topics with the rest of the people on the table, but the main topic were the two additional events that were planned for the Tournament.

"It took a while to organize everything, but we've finally wrapped things up. The dueling tournament will take place one week after the second task, and the Quidditch matches a week after that." Percy Weasley, who was there instead of Crouch, informed them.

* * *

"Come on Harry, it's time to dance." Millicent dragged him up once the band, the Weird Sisters took the stage. The dance was slow, and Harry found himself enjoying it immensely as they twirled around the dance floor.

"Do you want to dance another one?" Harry grinned when they were done.

After that, Harry danced with Hermione, Daphne and Tracy, after which he returned to Millicent.

* * *

"I had a lot of fun tonight." Millicent gave him a tired grin once they were back in the common room.

"Me too. You're a great dancer." Harry grinned as well.

"Well, good night Harry. See you tomorrow." Millicent yawned and turned towards the girls dorms.

"Millicent, one more thing." Harry gathered his courage and stepped forward, wrapping his hands around her. Before she could speak, he leaned forward and kissed her.

"Good night and pleasant dreams." Harry led the slightly dazed girl towards the dorms entrance and turned away to his own dorm once she was on her way, whistling a jaunty tune.


	17. Chapter 17

**A new chapter finally done. It was really hard to get this out, but I hope you'll like how it turned out.  
**

**Chapter 17**

"These are pretty good. You've certainly earned your pay." Harry grinned as he looked over the pictures Colin had delivered after the ball. There were a few of himself with Millicent that he would certainly frame, and a few that he would certainly pass to Neville.

Millicent had arrived moments later, and Harry greeted her by taking her hand, kissing it and then guiding her to a seat at the Slytherin table.

"I thought you might like to see some of the pictures my Gryffindor minion managed to take of us last night." Harry grinned and passed her the stack of photographs.

"Is that really me?" Millicent gasped. Despite all her improvement, a touch of her old insecurities still lingered.

"Actually, this is my other girlfriend." Harry smirked.

"Prat." She punched him playfully in the arm and put a few copies in her bag.

"Are those the pictures from Collin?" Neville joined them, having finished his breakfast.

"Yes. These are your and Hermione's. Please pass them along to her." Harry grinned.

* * *

After all the excitement of the Ball had passed, Harry used the Christmas break to further some of his ambitions. This pursuit brought him to Hogsmeade and into the biggest private room of the Three Broomsticks.

Aside from him, the room held sixteen other, all of them much older than Harry, and more than a few looked at him with confusion or outright dismissal.

Mr. Krum was the one that started the meeting, asking everyone to take a seat.

"You are probably wondering why we have asked you all to come here today, and I would like to thank you for accepting, considering how vague we were in our invitations."

"You did say you were offering us a chance for great profit if we came here today." A short Japanese witch commented.

"I will let our British host explain. This is Mr. Harry Potter, the owner of Green Leaf shipping." This news surprised the gathered people, and now they saw the boy they dismissed as a junior assistant in a new light.

"Again, thank you for your presence here. As you no doubt noticed, all of you have one thing in common. You are all new, fresh shipping companies, and as such, you have found yourselves opposed at every turn by the older companies. I am offering you a way that will allow us to finally break the monopoly this handful of people have on global shipping. It will not be easy, but if we are careful, we can accomplish this goal and in the process, reap great rewards." Harry began.

"What do you propose?" A large dark skinned man asked.

"We unite into one global guild. We organize ourselves to cover the needs of our native countries by working only within the guild. Second, I will share the methods that made my company so successful, and aid you in finding further ways to increase our profits." Harry knew he had them hooked by then. Now it was just the matter of reeling them in. The start would be hard and wrought with peril, but if his ploy worked, he would leave his descendants a legacy that would ensure the prosperity of House Potter for generations.

It took most of the day to hash out all the details, and there would be many more in the days to come, but the foundation was set. Now, all they had to do was to keep their heads down and not draw any attention until they had enough money and influence to keep the various governments they dealt with from giving them any trouble.

* * *

Soon enough, classes resumed, and with them, came a rather unpleasant surprise for Harry. It seemed that somehow, Rita Skeeter had learned that Hagrid was a half-giant, and had written a scathing story in which she painted him in the worst possible light.

What really caught his attention was the fact that one of her biggest sources from Hogwarts turned out to be Draco Malfoy.

"This has gone on long enough." Harry sighed. It seemed that a stronger lesson would be necessary to educate Draco on the facts of life.

That evening, while over two dozen students and the librarian provided the alibi for Harry and all his friends, confirming their presence in the library, two shadow clones of Harry entered the Slytherin dorms wearing masks.

Two hours later, Draco was found by a patrolling prefect in a seldom used part of the dungeons badly beaten, stripped naked and hung from the ceiling by his ankles.

This further cemented Harry's position in Slytherin, considering that he accomplished the act while he ensured that there was not a shred of proof that could accuse him. Draco's father had arrived in the castle and raved about 'the unprovoked attack on his son', but the man was a Slytherin and he realized that Draco had simply overreached himself and was put in his place by the student above him on the social ladder. The fact that there was only one student that had the position and motivation to do this mattered little. Potter left no way to incriminate himself, and that was something Lucius could admire.

All he could do was ensure that Draco did not draw anymore unwanted attention. Just like he had learned, he would have to teach Draco that sometimes, you had to bide your time and swallow your pride when faced with a superior opponent.

Thanks to Harry and a few other students as well as the Headmaster, Hagrid managed to get over the whole incident and was soon back to work. This time, even Draco followed his instructions carefully and without protest, but he did throw an occasional glance towards Harry.

It seemed that Draco did not appreciate the beating, or his pride and arrogance were a lot greater than Harry believed, as it took Draco a little over a week to retaliate.

* * *

When Harry took a long sip of pumpkin juice from his goblet during breakfast, he noticed a second flavor, masked by the sugary beverage. A normal person would miss the faint taste of cobra venom, but Harry's senses were far sharper.

Unfortunately for Draco, considering that Harry was both the snake contract holder and bonded to a far more deadly snake, the venom had no effect whatsoever.

"Well played, Malfoy. Didn't think you had it in you." Harry raised his goblet with a smirk and drank the rest of the juice, making Draco wonder how the hell he survived drinking the amount of venom he managed to get into his drink. Of course, Harry couldn't let this slide, and the following morning, Draco woke up to find himself completely covered in snakes.

His silent whimpers were music to Harry's ears as he went to the bathroom and then dressed himself. He even took an extra long time to pack his book bag, giving a small smile as he caught Draco's pleading eyes. The boy didn't dare move or even speak, as several of the snakes gave angry hisses whenever he so much as twitched.

Harry had ordered the summons to remain on Draco long enough after he departed that Draco, if he rushed getting ready, would certainly be late or even completely miss their first class and would get a detention on top of the morning scare.

It seemed that the repeat lesson had done it, as Draco had begun to avoid him like the plague, much to the relief of Harry and his group. Even the lower years earned a well needed respite from the arrogant boy, as he was so busy avoiding Harry that he had stopped bullying the younger Slytherins.

With that unpleasant business done, Harry could focus more of his attention on his training and the upcoming Second Task of the Triwizard tournament.

* * *

After some initial trouble with the egg, the group had managed to discover what the clue was, and was busy working on a way for Harry to spend an hour underwater.

First, they had to rule out all shinobi methods, but Harry prepared a re-breather of the type used by the shinobi of Rain country just in case.

The first method that they discovered was the bubble-head charm, which ended up surrounding Harry's head with an opaque bubble hard as stone. Again, his great power and relatively poor control worked against him.

Fortunately, Neville came through for his friend and explained about a magical herb called gillyweed that would solve his problem. Tests with the herb went rather well, much to Hermione's delight as Harry joined her for her swimming practice.

The day of the task dawned, and before he knew it, Harry was standing on the shore of the lake along with the other champions.

A quick scan of the audience showed that Millicent was surprisingly absent, but it took him just seconds to figure out where exactly she was. He ignored the activity around him and merely reached into his pocket and pulled out the clump of gillyweed, enough to last him around ninety minutes, which he believed was more than enough.

Soon enough, the signal was given, and Harry dove right in, swallowing the magical plant moments before he struck the water. The transformation was quick, and with his superior strength and agility, he shot quickly towards the middle of the lake which he guessed was the most likely location for a mermen settlement.

A few times some grindylows tried to attack him, but after killing a couple with a kunai he had with him, the rest left him alone.

Finally, he managed to reach the mermen village, and he noticed that they were a bit surprised to see him, considering that he managed to reach the village in less then an hour.

He swam around the settlement for a few minutes until he reached the center, where a roughly hewn stone statue of a merman. Tied around its tail were four people, and when he saw Millicent just floating there, helpless and unconscious, it was like someone had stabbed a knife in his chest.

He pushed himself forward and shot off like a torpedo, a deft flick of his hand had severed the line anchoring his girlfriend and as she began to float up, he swept her in his arms and began swimming upwards.

A few minutes later, they broke the surface of the lake, and once he reached the coast, Millicent was taken from him and into the medical tent, while Harry began swimming around, waiting for the gillyweed to wear off.

By the time this happened, the rest of the champions and their hostages had also returned, and once the scores were announced, it was clear that Harry remained firmly in first place.

Again, Harry's popularity in his House soared to great heights, which seemed to infuriate Draco, but this time, he knew better then let his temper get the better of him.

* * *

Once the hype of the second task had passed, the school was getting buzzed for the upcoming dueling tournament.

The Durmstrang students were fairly confident they would win, but the other schools were also quite determined, so for the moment, the winner was anybody's guess.

"Welcome to the first ever Triwizard Tournament Dueling Competition. If I could have a few moments to go over the rules?" Bagman stood on top of the dueling platform in the middle of the Great Hall. The entire school as well as spectators from the Ministry and the press were also present.

"Each school team consists of three members. Each member will duel twice, and in the end, the team with most wins will be declared winner, and take this trophy to their school. On top of this, the winning team will also receive five hundred galleons." Bagman began.

"The standard international dueling rules will apply. No Unforgivables, no lethal curses. Victory is by disarming, knock out, or yielding. Understood?" Flitwick was selected as a referee due to his past experience.

"Alright then. First match, begin." Flitwick gestured to the dueling platform, and the first match between Durmstrang and Hogwarts began.

It was a very exciting event, and even though Hogwarts emerged second, with three wins against Durmstrang's four, the host school still showed great sportmanship and the duelers found themselves swarmed with fans for weeks.

Just as that bit of excitement began to die down, the school began to gear up for the Quidditch competition, and this time, the Hogwarts team was determined to win.

Unlike the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons schools, even limited to those over seventeen, Hogwarts had a much larger player pool, and were thus the favorites for the win.

This prediction came true, and Hogwarts took the win, with Beauxbatons coming out second. It seemed that losing the dueling championship had made them determined not to lose again, and their match against Hogwarts ended with a single goal advantage for Hogwarts, even though Beauxbatons caught the snitch.

* * *

At last, the big day had dawned, and Harry stood before the large maze was to be the final challenge of the Tournament.

As the leading champion, he entered the maze first, and quickly began searching for a way to the middle of the maze and the cup.

The path was surprisingly easier then he had expected, and other then a few easily avoidable magical traps, well easy for him, he had yet to encounter anything truly challenging.

The first major obstacle didn't appear until much later, as the maze proved extremely hard to navigate. Just as he saw a glimpse of the cup, a gigantic Acromantula appeared before him and charged towards him. Harry waited until it was nearly upon him and cast a cutting curse, which shot forward like a ribbon and removed two of the spider's legs. The creature screeched loudly and collapsed to its side, which left Harry with enough room to pass after he shot a stunner in the spider's head just in case.

His hand wrapped around the cup just as Cedric came into view, and the older boy caught his sight just before Harry vanished in a flash of light.

Harry arrived in a decrepit old graveyard, and felt that this was not a part of the tournament. It was then that he felt something nearby. It was the unmistakable chakra signature of Voldemort.

The quartet had long wondered how Voldemort had remained alive, and had speculated on ways to kill him, however their research had gave them only one certain method to end the Dark Lord, and that was the Shiki Fujin, which was a suicide technique. There was simply no good way to kill a disembodied spirit. A revived Dark Lord, while difficult, was another matter altogether.

Harry made a shadow clone which hid and sat ready to replace itself with him at the first sign of danger.

Meanwhile, Harry took out one of his kunai and carefully nicked the side of his head, then laid down on the ground, making sure to press his new wound against the nearest tombstone.

* * *

Moments later, someone emerged, carrying something in his hands. He approached Harry carefully, wand held firmly in his hand. When Harry didn't react when the man nudged him with a foot, he waved his wand and Harry was levitated and tied to a gravestone.

The man noticed the wound, and raised Harry's head, which dropped down the moment he released it. With Harry secure, the hooded man went away and brought a large stone cauldron and busied himself with it.

Still pretending he was unconscious, Harry heard the unmistakable sound of a large serpent slithering around him, but he did not react in the slightest. Even when a cold voice hissed a short "Hurry," Harry did not even flinch, even though he knew who the owner of that voice was.

The hooded man picked up a bundle that was near the cauldron and revealed a really ugly looking baby-like creature which was dropped into the mixture within the cauldron.

The man then proceeded with the next part of the ritual, and Harry felt the grave beneath him crack and open.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son."

Harry heard the potion react, but still remained still.

"Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master." The man stuttered before a loud scream rent the night before something splashed into the cauldron, causing it to react once more.

Finally, the man approached Harry, and he could feel the man's hot, panting breath on him like a noxious cloud.

"Blood of the enemy..." The man began, but Harry's head suddenly snapped up.

"Willingly offered, you will resurrect your foe." While Harry had not studied much about rituals, it seemed he had said the right thing as he turned his hand so it could be cut easier as the man seemed on the verge of panicking. For a moment, he stared into Harry's triumphant eyes, and it was then that Harry realized who this man was. Sirius had given him a pretty good description of Wormtail after all.

Finally, Wormtail resigned himself to the inevitable and slashed Harry's hand and gathered some of the blood into a vial which he poured into the cauldron.

Wormtail collapsed once he was done, and it wasn't long until Voldemort stood, completely revived before them.

* * *

Voldemort ignored him for a moment, as he was examining his new body. It didn't last long as he turned to Wormtail.

"Hold out your arm, Wormtail." Voldemort's voice was barely above a whisper, but one could still hear him clearly.

"Thank you, master." Wormtail held out his right arm, which had only a stump where his hand used to be.

"Your other arm, Wormtail." Voldemort laughed and took Wormtail's left arm and rolled up his sleeve, exposing a tattoo on his left forearm.

One by one, hooded and masked figures began to appear, and Harry observed carefully, noting their names and their reaction to the Dark Lord.

At last, the man's attention turned back to Harry, casting the Cruciatus on him, but just as the curse was about to hit him, Harry's form shimmered and in the blink of an eye was suddenly next to the now broken tombstone.

"What?" Voldemort exclaimed.

"Did you forget our last encounter? I can easily escape ropes." Harry smirked.

"It does not matter. You are alone and surrounded. You will die here this night, and all will know how great my power truly is." Voldemort sneered.

"I have no intention of dying just yet. Be grateful that I was so kind as to offer my blood for your revival. You would never have gotten it otherwise. Until we meet again, Tom." With that, Harry formed a single hand sign and his body seemed to burn away like a piece of paper. Before Voldemort could digest Harry's words and react, Harry was already on the other side of the cemetery, where his shadow clone waited for him with the Triwizard Cup holding it with its robes.

Harry took it in his hand again, and was transported back to Hogwarts just as Voldemort's rage filled shout mixed with Wormtail's screams.

AN: **I apologize for how the dueling and quidditch competitions were cut so shortly, but after a dozen attempts to write those scenes, none of which came out good, I decided to simply cut them short and just give the results.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Well, it's been a loooong time coming, but my muse has finally returned and I managed to get a new chapter out. I hope you'll like it, and look forward to more chapters. Also, I have a poll for you. Do you want to see this story continued in a new crossover after I finish with year seven, and if so, which one? For now, my only suggestions are Stargate and Mass Effect, but if you have other ideas, feel free to suggest them, and if I am familiar with it and like the idea, I will write it. In the meantime, read and enjoy.  
**

**Chapter 18**

Harry landed on the Hogwarts grounds face first, and although painful, it was necessary for his plan. By the time he got to his feet, a crowd had gathered around him.

"What's with all the commotion?" Harry asked, while at the same time answering his friends' silent questions with a short 'Later.'

"You were missing for over an hour, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore replied.

"Really? All I know is I was portkeyed away when I grabbed the cup, and when I landed I stumbled, fell and banged my head on a rock or something. When I woke up, the cup was right before me, so I grabbed it and ended up here." Harry replied, and his head wound only corroborated his story.

"You should get that cut seen to, Potter. I'll take him to the hospital wing, Albus." Moody spoke first, and Dumbledore nodded.

"Of course, Alastor. Mr. Potter's health should be our first priority." With that, Harry walked away from the grounds and into the castle. It wasn't until they reached a fork in the corridors that Harry felt a wand poke him in his side.

"Left here, Potter. I want to have a word with you first." Moody growled as he led Harry back to his office.

"You may have escaped the Dark Lord somehow, but your luck has run out boy. Today you will die and he will reward me above all others for it." Moody gave him an evil grin as he raised his wand at Harry.

"So, it was you all along." Harry's grin grew into a sinister chuckle with his head bowed low. When he raised his head however, his eyes had slit and he had purple markings around his eyes. But the real surprise for Moody was the fact he couldn't move.

"How do you like my paralysis technique? It took me a while to learn to cast it with just a look." Harry grinned.

"How?" Moody croaked, his body straining against Harry's power.

"Now, that would be telling. So, why would Alastor Moody help Voldemort? Imperius? No, too noticeable." Harry mused. "Unless, you're not Moody."

Harry grabbed the empty flask hanging on the man's belt and took a sniff. He recognized the scent, having spoken with Snape right after one of his NEWT classes and gotten curious about the potions in the room. It was polyjuice potion.

"So, where is the real one? Tell me and your end shall be quick." Harry asked the still paralyzed man.

"Go to hell Potter." The fake Moody snapped.

"Wrong answer." Harry gave the man's neck a quick chop which knocked him out. Afterwards, Harry removed his leg and glass eye, knowing that the polyjuice potion would wear out eventually. Once he was done with that, he began searching throughout the room for the real Moody, whom he eventually found in a compartment of a magical trunk. Using a transformation technique to look like Dumbledore, Harry pulled him out and fed him a soldier pill to get his strength up a bit and then dragged the impostor out and had a shadow clone bring him to the Room of Requirement while he headed towards the hospital wing.

* * *

It was a few hours later that he was summoned from there to the Headmaster's office.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked once he was seated.

"A bit tired, but alright otherwise." Harry replied.

"I won't keep you up for long then. Now, would you be so kind as to tell me what really happened tonight?" Dumbledore asked.

"I was kidnapped for a ritual to restore Voldemort. It worked, although perhaps not quite as he had intended. One of the ritual components was blood of an enemy, which I offered willingly." Harry began. Dumbledore was silent for almost a minute, digesting the information, then he released a soft chuckle.

"I daresay that was perhaps the best you could have done under the circumstances. You have I believe at most a basic understanding of rituals?" When Harry nodded, Dumbledore continued. "By giving him your blood willingly, you have placed Voldemort in your debt. He cannot attack you personally until the debt is repaid."

"So, he has to save my life before he can kill me? Well, I'm glad to learn I came out ahead in all this." Harry smiled.

"You should not underestimate Voldemort, Harry. I know perhaps better than anyone just how strong he is." Dumbledore warned him.

"I never underestimate anyone, Headmaster. I will be on my toes with him." Harry turned serious quickly.

"Good. Now, there's one last thing I'd like to ask of you. Tomorrow, I'd like you to accompany me to the Ministry to inform Minister Fudge that Voldemort is back." Dumbledore's words were met with a chuckle from Harry.

"And you really think Fudge will accept that? It's obvious you're a Gryffindor despite your political experience." Harry grinned. Of course, not everyone had Orochimaru as a tutor. The man was a master of forming plans within plans. "I recommend you speak with Fudge about an as of yet unnamed Dark Wizard who seeks to continue Voldemort's work, and who may seek out the former Death Eaters to help him. Recommend tighter security on Azkaban and a discrete watch on known Death Eaters. If he mentions those that were cleared due to being victims to the Imperius, tell him that it is possible that this new threat may attempt to curse them again. You should also stress that these upstanding citizens shouldn't be informed of this for their own safety and peace of mind. If he complains about lack of manpower and budget, tell him that no effort or expense is too great to maintain the peace and prosperity we have enjoyed under his capable rule."

"I see now why the Sorting Hat placed you in Slytherin, Harry. I daresay your suggestion will be easier to pass by Cornelius than addressing the issue directly. Now, I believe I've kept you up for long enough. Off to bed with you." Dumbledore gave him a soft smile.

Once Harry was out of Dumbledore's office however, he headed straight to the RoR, where he spoke to his friends about the night's events until the time came to discuss their prisoner.

"What are we going to do with him?" Millicent asked as she looked over the sedate man that none of them recognized.

"Release him, of course. But first, get me the sealing kit." Harry smirked.

"Sasori's seal?" Neville asked.

"Yes, along with a reverse four symbol seal. I daresay that will be a surprise for the Death Eaters once they kill him." Harry smirked as he began to remove the man's clothes. Two hours later, Barty Crouch Jr. would return to his master's side, unaware of the seal holding subliminal orders in his head or the death-triggered trap seal on his chest.

* * *

Finally, it was time for the students to return home and once again the shinobi quartet broke apart for the holidays.

"Harry. We should get going if we want to get back home for dinner." Vernon greeted him at the station. This time, it seemed the man was alone.

"Uncle Vernon. I'm afraid I won't be going home with you, but I would appreciate it if you drove me to Heathrow." Harry surprised his uncle.

"You're traveling abroad?" Vernon frowned.

"I need to speak with a lot of people about my company. You know how it is." Harry replied and Vernon nodded, remembering well the many business trips he'd undertaken over the years.

"So, we won't be seeing you this summer?" Vernon asked.

"I'm afraid so. I expect it will take me about two months to finish my business, then I'll spend the rest of the summer with my friends at my godfather's. There is one more thing I wanted to speak to you about." Harry waited until they were on the road before he continued. "A few days ago, the wizard that killed my parents returned from the dead."

"Wizards can do that?" Vernon exclaimed.

"Well, he wasn't completely dead. I'm hardly an expert and he probably used some seriously twisted Dark magic to accomplish it. The fact is, he is back and he may come after you to get to me. Now, I've made some arrangements just in case." Harry handed him a piece of paper with two phone numbers on it.

"The first is my mobile phone. If there's any emergency, contact me. The second is a group of people that owe me some favors. Call them and they'll get all of you to a safe place." Harry explained. "For now, the most important thing to remember is to leave the house as little as possible and never after dark. Make sure Aunt Petunia and Dudley understand this. I don't know when or even if wizards will come after you, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"I understand, and thank you Harry." Vernon said after a few tense moments. He hated the fact that his family was put in danger because of his nephew, but at least Harry tried his best to protect them from it.

The rest of the ride was spent in less serious discussions, and soon enough Harry was on an airplane headed towards Bulgaria. This was only the first stop in what was a global tour meeting with the various companies he was now connected with.

* * *

It was a few days before his birthday which was his scheduled return date and during a meeting in New York that his phone began to ring.

"I am terribly sorry, but I must take this call." Harry excused himself, inwardly glad for the interruption from one of the most boring meetings he had during his trip. "Hello?"

"Harry, thank God. Something terrible has happened." Dudley's words sent a chill down his spine.

"Are your parents alright?" Harry asked quickly.

"They're fine, but you know Piers and Gordon, right? They found them in an alley an hour ago and they were completely catatonic. The paramedics tried everything to snap them out of it, but nothing worked. Harry, I almost went with them." Dudley's voice shook as he spoke. Harry remembered that the two boys were his best friends.

"I certainly hope that I'm wrong, but if I'm right about what happened to them, then there's nothing that can be done about them." Harry really hoped he was wrong, as he didn't like the implications of what this event signified.

"Hold on, someone's arrived. I think mom knows him, she's giving him that look." Dudley said as voices were heard in the background. A minute passed before Harry heard a new voice speak.

"Potter, you've certainly stirred up a hornet's nest." Harry could recognize that particular voice anywhere.

"Professor Snape. I trust you are well?" Harry smiled a bit. His aunt had told him that she knew the man, although her words were far from flattering.

"You've caused quite a bit of chaos with your sudden excursion abroad, Mr. Potter. Still I must commend you since no one had any idea you weren't in England in the first place." Snape replied.

"About Dudley's friends, sir. Were they Kissed, and did He send them?" Harry asked in a serious tone.

"Yes, the two boys were Kissed, and no, the Dark Lord did not send them. He is laying low for now, gathering his forces for the day he steps into the open." Snape replied.

"It is both relieving and concerning to hear that, sir. I will be in London on the 30th. I assume you've come to arrange a meeting with me?" Harry sighed.

"Correct, Mr. Potter. Come to London to a street called Grimmauld Place. Someone will approach you and ask you for a light. You'll tell them your fire's run out and needs refilling. Understood?" Snape instructed him.

"Perfectly, sir. See you in a few days." Harry ended the call and returned to the meeting, his mind aflame with the recent revelations.

* * *

A few days later, Harry was at the designated street when a seedy looking woman approached him and holding a cigarette, asked him for a light.

"Sorry, my fire's run out and needs a refill." Harry replied.

"That'll be thirty quid, love. Follow me." The woman walked away, and Harry followed closely.

"Read that and think on it." The woman passed him a slip of paper and Harry read 'The HQ of the Order of the Phoenix is at Number 12, Grimmauld Place.'

As he thought about the words, something clicked in his mind and he saw as a house suddenly appeared in the space between numbers 11 and 13.

"Harry, so nice of you to join us." Sirius greeted him as he walked in the large kitchen.

"Sirius, what the hell are they doing here?" Harry was quick to notice the mass of gingers seated around the table.

"Well, they had some trouble with their house wards, and Dumbledore asked if they could stay here." Sirius replied quickly.

"As long as they stay out of my way. And Sirius, I'd keep an eye on the silverware if I were you." Harry smirked as the twins slammed Ron back in his seat. No doubt the pair were sitting next to their volatile brother expecting trouble with Harry in the house.

"I would not invite people I didn't trust in my house, Harry. In any case, Hermione and Millicent are also here. They wanted to speak with you when you arrived." Sirius replied with a reprimand in his voice about his baiting.

"Alright. Kreacher, have my room ready, I need to rest after my trip." The ancient elf bowed to the floor and vanished from the kitchen, with Harry following suit.

"Harry, so good to see you. We've been growing mad with boredom here." Millicent greeted him with a rather passionate kiss.

"Was your trip successful?" Hermione gave him a bone-cracking hug once the pair finally parted for air.

"Very successful. My income will double for this year, and I can expect a quadruple of my current annual income starting with next year." Harry smirked. "Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

"You mean other than the Dementor attack? The only bit of excitement was three days ago when Ron tried to hit on Millie." Hermione smirked.

"He did, huh?" Harry got an evil glint in his eyes.

"Unfortunately for him, I was also nearby. I hung him from the kitchen chandelier and told him if he ever bothered Millie again I would break him like a twig." Hermione replied. Nearing seven feet and packing muscles that athletes would kill for, Harry had no doubt her threat wasn't an empty one.

"Well, I'm glad you girls are looking out for each other, even if Millie can take down a creep like Weasley on her own." Harry shrugged.

"So, have you been keeping up with your training?" Hermione asked as they walked up to the library and sat down. Immediately, a tea set and a platter of biscuits appeared.

"Is my room ready, Kreacher?" Harry asked as he was pouring tea for the girls.

"Yes, Master Potter." The old elf was surprisingly polite to Harry, which was a surprise since it usually insulted everyone. The reason for it was simple as it could feel Harry's power and it was also grateful to him for helping Sirius destroy Voldemort's locket, which certainly helped to improve Sirius's image in the elf's eyes as well.

"Thank you, Kreacher." Harry waited until the elf was gone before he replied to Hermione. "I have, actually. Using 'that' technique has really helped me go through some of the meetings I've had."

"I can feel you're stronger too, but I haven't been idle either. The surfers really seemed to appreciate my work, even if they didn't know I was causing the waves." Hermione smirked.

"But can you do it on dry land?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"As a matter of fact, I can. What about you, Millicent?" Hermione stuck out her tongue at Harry before turning to their third member.

"I swear you two are worse than five-year-olds, and you're supposed to be the top two students in our year." Millicent laughed as Hermione huffed and Harry grabbed his chest in a dramatic pose. "But joking aside, I've been training too. I've gotten the hang of both styles, and can use them reliably."

"…and maybe that overgrown hag won't be here." Molly Weasley walked in, followed by her progeny, and the woman's face turned sour when she noticed the trio sitting before them.

"May I help you, Mrs. Weasley?" Harry asked politely.

"She's been coming up here every day since she arrived, trying to remove all the books she claims are 'dangerous'." Hermione answered before Molly could.

"Sirius already removed the cursed books. This is a very poorly veiled attempt by a bunch of thieves to take advantage of their hosts generosity." Harry's words started to turn the Weasley matriarch a deep shade of red that slowly moved into purple as the woman seemed to visibly struggle from retorting.

"We're not bloody thieves like you, Potter." Ron however did not have that kind of self-control.

"The last wizard to call a Potter a thief lived only long enough to regret those words, Weasley. This is my godfather's house, in which we are both guests. Out of my respect for him and his name, I will not respond to that ill-thought insult, but do not expect me to be so generous in the future. Since you obviously don't know, I suggest you ask your father about the consequences of insulting a Head of an Ancient and Most Noble House. Now, I bid you good-day madam." With that obvious dismissal, the still livid woman pushed her children out the door and walked out.

"If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were the most stuck-up, arrogant snob I know." Hermione burst out in laughter the moment the door closed.

"Rubbing Weasley's face in his inadequacies is the best way to rile him up. It certainly brightens my day." Harry grinned.

"From what I've heard, he considers himself to be your rival." Millicent was also laughing from the encounter.

"Weasley, my rival? Perhaps if he showed a better performance, but alas, one cannot match wits with an unarmed opponent." Harry's words sent a new wave of laughter through the room and the trio spent several hours catching up and from time to time, cracking jokes at Ron's expense.

* * *

The next day, Harry finally met with Dumbledore, hoping to discuss the appearance of Dementors in his neighborhood. Needless to say, the discussion went poorly as Dumbledore seemed eager to evade Harry's questions. His misdirections might have worked on anyone else, but Harry was trained by a true master of manipulation.

"Headmaster, you know as well as I do that someone high up in the Ministry is behind this attack. Voldemort would not risk exposure so soon. Now, I wonder why in Merlin's name would someone at the Ministry try to kill me?" Harry snapped after several minutes of listening to the old man's excuses.

"Cornelius seemed reluctant to believe me when we talked. He insisted I name the source of my information, or he would refuse to take any action. I gave him your name and told him you personally witnessed the new Dark Lord speak with several masked Death Eaters." Dumbledore admitted.

"I didn't want my name brought in the discussion, and I especially don't like the fact that my family was put in danger. What has the Minister done since your talk?" Harry sighed.

"Nothing. It seems he has decided that I was just trying to incite panic and that everything is perfectly fine in Britain." Dumbledore replied.

"Just when you think you've seen the limit of human stupidity." Harry put his head in his hands. "So, what do we do now?"

"Let us worry about that, Harry. You just focus on the upcoming year. Which reminds me, your Hogwarts letters should arrive today. Now was there anything else you wanted to talk about?" Dumbledore replied calmly.

"No, sir. I guess I'll see you at Hogwarts." Harry said and stood up. True enough, by the time he joined his friends, their letters had arrived.

"Harry, we're both prefects this year." Hermione grinned widely, pointing at the shiny badge pinned on her shirt, and Harry saw Millicent holding hers in her hand.

"You're not the only ones, it seems." Harry grinned as he too fished out a golden badge from his envelope. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"Extra responsibility and less free time?" Millicent asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well that, but also, access to the prefects baths." Harry smirked as his girlfriend smacked him in the shoulder.


End file.
